Apr 1

Apr 1 Pride

Jules Weissman

Letters

SPRING 2025

APRIL 1 - JUNE 30

What makes me feel pride? America? My god, not right now. But I got pride: pride in our small town, in the weird and wonderful people who show up for each other, in the art that refuses to disappear. I’m proud that VORTEX is stubbornly entering its fifth year. Proud of Ojai — not because it’s perfect, but because it keeps trying. And yes, Ojai does have a Pride celebration in June, because queer joy deserves a stage and Ojai's Pride is one of the best. That’s something to be proud of.

Queerness, Cohabitation, and the Breakfast that Changed Everything...

It’s officially Pride Month, and we’re kicking off our season of queer stories with something tender, funny, and beautifully undefinable. In Making a Home of Each Other, acclaimed author and illustrator Lucy Bellwood makes her VORTEX debut with a personal essay about domestic rituals, chosen family, and partnerships that elude easy explanation.

Lucy grew up in Ojai. She’s climbed tall ships, drawn intimate comics about mental health, and toured the country talking about art, ambition, and authenticity. But here, she’s doing something even harder: writing truthfully about love that doesn’t fit into a box.

Read the story and stay tuned for the breakfast recipe that sparked it all.

Pride Isn’t Dead: Memory and Love as Acts of Resistance

In a year marked by fire, loss, and global unrest, writer and artist Yosephina Peters asks: What does American pride mean when the nation feels unrecognizable? In this powerful reflection, Peters weaves personal memory, Black feminist theory, and Indigenous resistance into a meditation on identity, grief, and hope. Accompanied by original artwork from both Yosephina and her mother, Michaela Peters, this piece is a love letter to radical pride, the kind rooted in truth, resilience, and the fight for a more just future.

Read Pride Isn’t Dead.

RAINBOW IN CUYAMA, PHOTO BY RAE GARRINGER

Documenting water justice in Cuyama

Just over the hill from Ojai, in the wide-open quiet of the Cuyama Valley, a queer goat farmer from West Virginia has been collecting stories. Rae Garringer, the first Cuyama Water Justice Fellow, spent January listening to locals talk about water: what’s left of it, who gets it, and what it means to live without it. Their oral history project, supported by Blue Sky Center and Quail Springs, anchors a year of residencies aimed at amplifying rural voices in a region long overlooked.

Next up are a documentary from filmmakers Sean Huntley and Alex Brown and a community-devised play and water parade from PlaceBase Productions.

The full story, Rural and Rooted, explores Garringer’s work and what’s brewing just up the 33. Readers can listen to the entire podcast from Country Queers as part of the story.

Taft celebrated its resident artists

Grammy-nominated musician Andrew Bird spent a month at Taft Gardens listening to the land (literally). The result was a brand-new, not-yet-titled piece that he debuted at the fifth annual Art in Nature Residency Exhibition on April 26. He joined six other artists from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, whose works included cyanotype clothing, pressed flowers, cactus-spine sculptures, and bark reliefs made with creek water. Sleeping Giants Everywhere by Andra Belknap offers a closer look at how each artist responded to the land.

READ IT

Rites of Passage on South Rice Road

Drew Mashburn takes us downhill fast on skateboards, wagons, bikes, and pure adolescent bravado in a wild, wheeled romp through 1960s Mira Monte.

READ IT

OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL 2025

To really listen…

On May 15, acclaimed flutist and 2025 Ojai Music Festival Music Director Claire Chase joined forces with sound artist Colloboh and dub lab founder Mark “Frosty” McNeill for an evening of sonic immersion inspired by Pauline Oliveros's legacy. Presented by The Listening Garden and Ojai Music Festival, Deep Listening with Claire Chase offered a meditative, multisensory experience unlike anything else this season. The story, One Night Only, also offers a closer look at Chase herself, this year’s Ojai Music Festival Music Director.

From someone deep in it...

The 2025 Ojai Music Festival may be over, but the questions linger: What just happened? What did we hear? Was that a space flute?

Will Thomas — you know, the guy with the dog and the good ears — was deep in it all month, producing the OJAICAST podcast and swapping curbside impressions.

Here, he shares what stood out, what surprised him, and what’s still echoing in his brain.

NEW THING: If you’re asking…

Welcome to our new advice column from Katie McQuillen. She is absolutely not your therapist, your best friend, or your moral compass, but she is extremely good at telling it like it is.

SOLICIT ADVICE

VORTEX AT THE MOVIES

A Supa Review by Supa Fans

Dog Man screened at Ojai Playhouse on Saturday, April 5, at noon, and Peter Hastings, the film’s writer and director (also behind Captain Underpants, Kung Fu Panda, Animaniacs, and Pinky and the Brain), introduced it in person.

VORTEX contributor and longtime Dog Man fan Cassandra C. Jones sat down with her sons, of whom she is very proud: Kaj (13) and Milo (11), for a post-movie chat. Their full review is both heartwarming and hilarious — from robot butts to disco battle buildings, these supa-fans have thoughts.

The Figures

A jazz kissed portrait of the underground art life, The Figures, screened at Ojai Playhouse on April 13. Director Nadia Szold and composer Daniel Wright conjure a tender, unruly reverie in this intimate documentary about poet, curator, and artist Geoffrey Young. With a shape-shifting score and appearances by figures from the worlds of jazz, poetry, and painting, the film captures the quiet persistence of a life devoted to art.

Writer Evan Louison, a longtime collaborator of Szold’s, interviews Szold and Wright about the film’s thoughtful musical score for VORTEX.

Hollywood's great almost

Journalist Mark Lewis revived an oldie but goodie: the wild, winding life of Michael Parks, Ojai resident, rebel icon, and the best actor you (maybe) never knew. Originally published in Ojai Quarterly in 2017, this profile resurfaced in time for a special screening of Long Lonesome Highway: The Story of Michael Parks on May 4 at the Ojai Playhouse. The screening was followed by a conversation with director Josh Roush, moderated by Lewis himself.

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Did Becker Illegally Culvert a Whole-Ass Stream?

The developer behind the Mallory Way project has reportedly culverted a seasonal creek — and plans to build on top of it — without any record of permits filed with Fish & Wildlife. A recent public records request came back empty, raising serious questions about compliance with state stream protection laws. Is this just a paperwork oversight, or something bigger? The creek might qualify as a Blue Line Stream, which would trigger stricter protections — and possibly halt the project. With stagnant water, mystery filings, and a Planning Commission showdown looming May 21, this story is just getting started.