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The University of Texas at Austin is consolidating seven ethnic and gender studies departments in the College of Liberal Arts. That consolidation was announced in February. We’ll look more into these changes.
South By Southwest 2026 is in full swing. On this episode, we’ll bring you the director and stars of the film “STAGES.” It’s the story of an Austin musician navigating his life and career, and it features many of our city’s best hangs — from Hole in the Wall to Joe’s Bakery.
The movie premiered this week as part of the fest. We’ll delve into how the project came together.
An Austin nonprofit dedicated to investing in Black, Indigenous and other communities of color is presenting a free, four-day event during SXSW.
And we’ll get a check-in from our official SXSW correspondent.
Austin Signal is made possible by listeners like you. You can support our work by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:09] SXSW 2026 is in full bloom on a beautiful sunny Friday here in Austin and today we’re bringing you the director and stars of the film Stages. It’s the story of an Austin musician navigating his life and career and it features many of our city’s best hangs from Hole in the Wall to Joe’s Bakery. The movie premiered this week as part of SX, come hear how the project came together. That’s on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:34] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:39] An Austin nonprofit dedicated to investing in black, indigenous, and other communities of color is presenting a free four-day event during South By. Come hear what they’ve got going on, and we get a check-in from our official festival correspondent. Those stories and more up next on Austin Signal. Howdy out there. You are tuned in to Austin Signal. It is Friday the 13th day of March. Thank you for including us in your plans. We are back in the studio after a super South by Southwest show at Schultz Garden. Thank you to our great guests who made it possible and to our listeners who shared the day with us. We hope to see and meet you at some future live shows. We’re gonna start today by discussing the University of Texas at Austin’s consolidation of seven ethnic and gender studies departments in the College of Liberal Arts. That consolidation was announced in February. As KUT’s Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vasquez reports, a month after the big announcement, students and faculty are still looking for answers.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:01:49] The departments affected include African and African Diaspora Studies, American Studies, Mexican American and Latina Latino Studies, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, among others. In total, seven departments will be consolidated into two. Right after UT Austin announced the decision, students held a protest.
Protest attendees [00:02:08] What do we do? Stand up, fight back! When Latino studies are under attack, what do we do? Stand up!
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:02:15] UT officials said curriculums would also be reviewed, and they would determine what majors, minors, and courses will be offered in the future, but they did not provide a timeline.
Alfonso Ayala III [00:02:25] They’re trying to act like there’s tools, things being figured out, but they know that the end goal for them is the elimination of these departments and the elimination of our ways of knowing and ways of thinking.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:02:35] That’s Alfonso Ayala III, a second year Ph.D. Student at the Department of Mexican, American and Latina-Latino Studies, who was at the protest.
Protest attendees [00:02:43] Say it twice! Students will not pay the price!
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:02:46] Now, more than a month later, there’s still little information on what’s coming next. Ashanta Rees is an associate professor at the College of Liberal Arts. These are students until.
Ashanta Rees [00:02:57] Intellectual homes. For a lot of them, this is where they learn their critical thinking, their writing skills, et cetera. So they’re really sad. Many of them are asking questions on what can we do? How does this change my degree? How can we fight back? Is there anything we can do.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:03:14] Many are also asking, how did we get here? The answer?
Protest attendees [00:03:18] SB37. SB37! SB37
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:03:23] Senate Bill 37. It was passed during the last legislative session and became effective in September. Antonio Ingram, a lawyer with the Organization Legal Defense Fund, describes it like this.
Antonio Ingram [00:03:33] SP37 as a law signals that professors should take a backseat to how universities are run and how content and issues of faculty governance.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:03:46] Decided. Faculty at Texas Public Universities used to be in charge of reviewing curriculums and making academic decisions. But after SB 37 that’s up to the governing board or Board of Regents whose members are appointed by the governor.
Board of Regents [00:04:00] There’s a quorum present and the board is reconvening in open session. The date is February 19th and the time is 9 a.m.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:04:06] A week after the consolidation announcement, the UT system also approved an initiative that limits, quote, controversial topics in the classroom. When critics complained that the Board of Regents did not define those topics, Board Chairman Kevin Eltheiv said,
Board of Regents [00:04:21] vagueness can be our friend.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:04:23] Advocates like Ingram say that intentional vagueness will make it unclear on how to comply with these mandates.
Antonio Ingram [00:04:29] And it leaves students unclear on what they can and cannot learn under the state’s purview. It makes people err on the side of caution, which in the First Amendment context is quite concerning because it means they’re not talking about issues or not communicating ideas that are under your constitutional rights to do so freely.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:04:47] That chilling effect is spreading further than UT Austin. Other university systems like Texas A&M and Texas Tech have also placed restrictions on teaching race and gender. More recently, UT San Antonio also announced the consolidation of its Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality studies.
Antonio Ingram [00:05:04] And is actually, I think, a concerted effort by the political class executive branch to really censor things that they couldn’t push through through the democratic process.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:05:16] And Ingram is not the only one to see it that way. Nicholas Bloom, a Harvard lecturer and a graduate from the PhD in American studies, says because of its history and diversity, Texas was at the forefront in American, African diaspora and Mexican-American studies. But now he sees the university as ground zero for the fight over academic freedom.
Nicholas Bloom [00:05:37] If a state and the elite of a country are deciding how and why and when you are allowed to critically analyze those things, and we’re preventing people from having the tools to do that, we’re creating a situation where misinformation can spread more easily and where people feel disempowered to critically think for themselves.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:05:58] Bloom says these decisions are hurting the university. So far, two of his students at Harvard have decided not to attend UT for graduate school anymore.
Nicholas Bloom [00:06:07] You’re going to see a real brain drain from UT, you’re gonna see the best and brightest in the country deciding not to go there.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:06:14] He worries recruiting faculty will also get harder.
Nicholas Bloom [00:06:17] So I think you’re seeing the kind of destruction of one of the great institutions of higher education, you know, in the history of the country right before our eyes and it’s tragic.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:06:28] But for those who are currently part of the departments that are set to disappear, the uncertainty has only grown. Undergrads wonder if they’ll be able to finish their majors. Graduate students like Ayala have other questions.
Ayala [00:06:40] We don’t know what it means about our ability to TA or to teach what it means for our funding. We’re concerned that staff will be fired, terminated, but like we have a lot of concern for our faculty and staff.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:06:53] Professor Rhee says, beyond knowing if and which positions will be cut, it’s also unclear how departments will be merged.
Ashanta Rees [00:07:00] Our departments have different cultures, but we also have different intellectual genealogies, methods, theories, et cetera. So what does that mean to put us all in one department and then have to shape a degree program or degree programs? How do we pick and-
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:07:14] choose what that looks like. She also worries that more changes are yet to come for other departments. But Ayala says that as gloomy as it seems, faculty, students, and alumni still have hope. 120 American Studies graduate alumnus have signed a letter asking the administration to reverse the decision. Departments are holding informal meetings to discuss the topic. And students like Ayala, well, he knows it’s unlikely that the decision will be reversed. But he finds hope in organizing and in making sure the university is still a place where ideas are not censored.
Ayala [00:07:48] All of the students I know of are resisting the pushout and we’re not going anywhere.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:07:53] For now, all the programs still exist. Despite multiple requests from KUT, the university has not provided any information on when or how the changes will happen. I’m Greta Díaz-González Vázquez.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:13] South by Southwest is in full swing and local nonprofit Dawa is hosting a four-day event called Vision 8291 in partnership with Venice. That’s a digital distribution and artist development platform. Host Miles Bloxson and spoke with Jonathan Chaka Mahone, founder of Dawa and Angel from the Block, one of the presenters of this year’s event. Here’s Mahone on what Vision 8 291 means.
Jonathan Chaka Mahone [00:08:39] NPR listeners are probably familiar with the 1928 master plane. If not, it was a moment in the city where officials decided to segregate the city and they decided to basically cut off access to water and sanitation and basically move all the black and brown people over to what is now known as East Austin. And we know that after that fact, after people recovered and started to build their communities, then they come around with gentrification and redlining all these things. So at the end of the day, that community has been traumatized and affected and impacted by these decisions that the city has made overall with their social policy. And 8291 is a reverse of 1928. It’s about having a vision for ourselves beyond the trauma. It’s a about having vision for ourself moving forward. And it’s about centering, again, BIPOC voices and BIPOC innovators, people with ideas, giving them a chance to be heard and seen, but also a chance connect together.
Miles Bloxson [00:09:33] Angel how does it feel to be a part of this year’s event because you’re going to be one of the presenters there
Protest attendees [00:09:39] it feels so amazing especially as like a native austinite this is something that shaka and i have talked about before but that there’s like a sense of deep like internalized racism for east austinites because of things like the 1928 master plan that have like basically taught us that all of these great things that our city has like acl south by southwest all of these things that uplift creatives they’re not for us so despite the The live music capital with all these events grew up going to South by Southwest every year. I never, like, never at any point in my life imagined that having an opportunity to speak to people and connect with people and be platformed at South by South West was something that was going to be for me. So it feels really meaningful to be a part of the return to what I feel like South by is supposed to be.
Jonathan Chaka Mahone [00:10:26] Ay, the fun fact of the situation is I found out about Angel through their video that they created for Instagram and TikTok to teach people about the 1928 Master Plan and gentrification. And I saw them at a tenant rally for folks that were fighting against some of the developers. And I said, yo, I was like, that’s, and I invited them to the Killer Mike concert and also invited them, to come out to DAWA Studios and now they are at DAWA studios creating content. And there’s just this amazing synergy happening right now. And so we’re celebrating that. We’re celebrating putting someone like them in front of new people to share the amazing work that they are doing in this world and how it can contribute to a greater Austin.
Miles Bloxson [00:11:12] Shaka, can you tell us what people can expect from attending Vision 8291? Because I feel like every single year, the bar gets higher and higher and hire.
Jonathan Chaka Mahone [00:11:22] Number one is free. Number two, it’s in East Austin, okay? On Springdale Road, okay, very accessible. Parking is not a problem. And we’re having conversations starting on Saturday, it’s called the Music Blueprint. So if there are musicians and creators out there listening, you can come and learn about tour realities in 2026 from Jackie Vinson. You can come, and learn about how do I get music for TV and film? How do I sync music and TV and films? You can go and see the first ever live podcast of someone named Mauricio Ruiz. He has something called the Managers Playbook, which is one of the industry leaders and podcasts about just a career in music. He’s interviewed some of the biggest names in music, in the music industry. That’s just Saturday. And I haven’t even named everybody that’s going on a Saturday.
Mauricio Ruiz [00:12:12] Oh, yeah.
Jonathan Chaka Mahone [00:12:13] Give you a highlight of Sunday. We have Angel from the Block talking about social media as an organizing tool. Also Celine from Community Power at ETX. Shout out to them. We have Jamiah Hargans from LA Crop Swap. He’s a really important figure in terms of food and food sovereignty. And we also have Richie Verseda who spent seven years in the California state prison, came out and just like blossomed. He created a Netflix documentary called Songs from the Hole. He’s going to be screening that. He’s also going to do a workshop after that. Come out. Yes, we are censoring BIPOC creatives and BIPOC innovators and leaders and folks, but this is for everybody.
Miles Bloxson [00:12:49] Angel being from the east side of Austin, how important is it for you to see things happening like Vision 8291, you know, in the place that you call home and the place you grew up in?
Protest attendees [00:12:59] My whole childhood and life like Springdale Road was almost never associated with positivity you know like Springdales almost never talked about in a positive way and whatever it is these days is usually tied to like some sort of gentrification so the fact that we’re talking about Springdale we’re boosting Springdale in a way that is positive and serving the community and celebrating the community uplifting us it means so much to me the fact that we are calling people into the east side with like black people running the event making up the majority of the event. It’s genuinely re-alchomizing my brain, honestly.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:35] That was Myles Bloxson speaking with Jonathan Shaka Mahone, founder of DAWA, as well as Angel from the Block, one of the presenters of Vision 8291. We’ll have a link to more about the fest and a longer version of this interview in today’s show notes and at kut.org slash signal. We’ll be back after this break.
Jimmy Mass [00:14:00] This is Jimmy Moss, Program Director with KT, and you are listening to The Austin Signal. Day two of South by Southwest is off to a great start. Futurists and CEOs are doing a lot of panels today and through the weekend, talking about how AI will affect everything. And right now, day two’s keynote speaker, movie director Steven Spielberg, is probably regaling a large audience about how he was all over AI artificial intelligence 25 years ago, if only Siri looked like Haley Joel Osment. This afternoon comedian Larry David will be featured on a panel and staying in comedy Austin’s own Saturday Night Live alum Devin Walker will do the first of a couple of South by Southwest shows in town this weekend. Don’t forget plenty of things you can enjoy on the periphery without a badge. Another great lineup for KUTX at Schulz’s Tomorrow Morning, the Rivian Daystage on South Congress also on South congress South by San Jose at the hotel of the same name and the Radio Daystage at the Downright Hotel. South By’s Flat Stock, the art show, opens today at the Palmer Event Center, all free, no badge required. Among the luminaries in town for the conference this weekend, who might be appearing in Waymo’s Near You, Jamie Lee Curtis, Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas, and Mark Cuban. Speaking of weird rides, once I was chatting with former NFL star Chad Ochosenko Johnson about his appearance at South By, and then a Toyota Tacoma was pulled up by the valet. I said, whoa, you’re driving a pickup? It’s all they had. It’s South By. I’m Jimmy Moss. You’re listening to The Austin Signal.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:39] Thank you, Jimmy. We’re gonna keep the South by Southwest ball rolling and talk about the film Stages, which premiered Thursday night here in Austin. Joining us on the show are director Ryan Booth and David Ramirez and Leslie Grace, who star in the film. Welcome to Austin Signal. Thanks for having us. So Ryan, I wanna start with you. How long have you known David and was this project made specifically with him in mind?
Ryan Booth [00:16:03] It definitely was. David and I have known each other for over a decade at this point and we met through, I filmed some music videos and performance videos with him back in the day. There we go. Filmed some music video and performance video with him, back in a day. And when I thought about kind of trying my hand at narrative filmmaking, a friend of mine named Bradley Jackson who’s one of the co-writers on this film. He called me out of the blue and was like, when you think about making a movie, you should think about doing it with David. And he had worked with him on a project and was there’s a way that he can exist on camera that I think is like we could build a whole story around it. And so I spent a lot of time kind of in proximity and adjacent to musicians. And so knew I wanted to explore this world as my first film and couldn’t think of anybody. Else I would want to work with other than David. So the whole thing was built with him in mind from from the jump. We made a short film many years ago, and then now the feature. So he’s been kind enough to hang with me for the last nearly ten years.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:14] Well David, what were you thinking when Ryan first approached you with this idea?
David Ramirez [00:17:18] I was stoked and then years went by and I thought it was never going to happen. And then I got a phone call to hang out with one of the producers, Russell, here in town a couple years ago and I showed up and he had a shot of Mezcal for me and I thought he was congratulating me on my new record but turns out he was getting me drunk to tell me that I needed to start learning my lines.
Mauricio Ruiz [00:17:45] We love you.
David Ramirez [00:17:46] Which was a really great way to hear that the film had been green lit, and we were moving forward. And now we’re sitting here being interviewed about a movie we premiered last night. Yeah, last night! And I can’t believe I can believe that.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:00] It definitely has some biographical elements, I’m sure it’s not a one for one, so I did want to ask you, and Leslie as well, you are both performers and here you are specifically acting in the film. For you David, how, when you approached working day in and day out, how often were you struggling to be Ben Garza or David Ramirez, did you feel like you could commit to one the other, you’re kind of constantly pulling from both worlds.
David Ramirez [00:18:29] I don’t think there was a lot of struggle internally to switch back and forth. Thankfully there is a lot music in this film and thankfully a lot it was written by me. So there was lot of me in it. I think what was the hardest part and Leslie helped me out so much, you’re just such a natural on camera and just so comfortable. I’m used to being in front of a microphone not in front a camera. And watching you just exist so naturally in it was made me really, really comfortable because that was the thing I was most nervous about. It wasn’t really like a character thing that freaked me out. It was, something’s watching me right now. You know? Yeah, that kind of thing. But.
Leslie Grace [00:19:16] I always feel like that
David Ramirez [00:19:17] Yeah, but watching you as he… That was, it’s right.
Leslie Grace [00:19:20] It’s Ryan that was watching. Yeah
David Ramirez [00:19:21] Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was me, sorry. I’m sorry.
Leslie Grace [00:19:23] I’m the whole rest of the crew.
David Ramirez [00:19:25] So that made it really easy just to have you next to me. That was cool.
Leslie Grace [00:19:29] And I can say the same. I think anybody that would watch this film would be surprised to hear that that’s something that you felt, because one of the biggest gifts of my experience of shooting this film was getting to play off of someone who I could look in the eyes and feel that they weren’t lying, you know? Didn’t feel because of that because of you not necessarily you being so honest as a as as a musician, as a person in life, in your actual life, there was no other way for you to play Ben. And so it made my job easy, dude, for real. It made it easy, cause I could just also sink into that. Like you set the tone for me to also just exist.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:16] It’s a high compliment. Thank you. So you so David made it comfortable for you because he was bringing that true musician feel Yeah for Davey Leslie made you feel comfortable because she was an acting professional and you guys sounds like you guys are just kind of Propping each other up which the chemistry is really Vibrant in the movie, you know Leslie. Can you just say more about working with Ryan and and David on this project?
Leslie Grace [00:20:37] It’s been a joy, it’s been the joy of my life. This project came at a time for me that I, you know, I always feel that certain things happen in life just when you need them to. And it’s, it has been true for me with certain roles and the role of Jesse in stages and getting to collaborate with everybody that’s been apart of this project certainly came at time for where I needed it. And I was really struggling in some ways, in the ways that Ben is in the film with, you know, how do I want to keep this love for this huge relationship in my life with this thing that feels so connected to my identity? How do I keep it alive? How do not let it be strained by all the detours that come with the journey? And stages allowed me to explore that. At a time where I wasn’t singing even, I wasn’t using my voice, I was experiencing a lot of new things that I hadn’t experienced with music at the time and it made it safe for me to via Jesse, practice being in love with music again and feel safe to do that and I’m just grateful that I got to experience that.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:01] Ryan early you said like the film feels lived in and as I’m talking to you I’m feeling like you almost feel like your characters, you know, I feel like I’m getting falling into the trap of the movie here
Mauricio Ruiz [00:22:11] Yeah, yeah.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:12] I really could talk all day, but I know you guys have, it’s a busy week here with South By. I did want to talk about the production that happened here in Austin, because lots of great places. Hole in the Wall, I mentioned, is featured a couple times. Joe’s Bakery is featured. Why was it important to feature these spots? I’ll start with you, Ryan.
Ryan Booth [00:22:29] Well, I mean, I think Austin is is, you know, for anyone in Texas is an important place. You spend a lot of time here, even if you don’t live here. And in twenty twenty two, I came to town to meet with David and he was like, we can hang. But I got to go do this thing at Hole in the Wall for South by. And I just was in the room. I filmed on my little camera. And that little clip kind of became a very important tonal reference. And then we went back and. And shot the whole, that’s why we shot the final scene there. So in many ways, I think the city is integral and very, very much woven into the kind of the fabric of the original idea of the film. And so also then to come back and share the film at South By feels like a very beautiful, full circle moment.
David Ramirez [00:23:20] This city saved my life, creatively, you know. And so to be able to make something that for me, I did this for a lot of reasons, but for me when I was watching is just kind of my thank you to Austin thing. It meant a lot. It meant a lot and it was nice to because I think there was a moment we were talking about doing it in New York. Yeah. And I would have loved to do it to have done it anywhere. But I don’t think that I’m that great of an actor to pull off that I am from New York City. I’m using it just doesn’t really make any sense. It would have been a different film. And so making it here was just like. Yes, okay, this makes sense and I don’t really have to try that hard
Mauricio Ruiz [00:24:07] Yeah.
David Ramirez [00:24:08] Yeah, you can just be yourself. Yeah. Just hang out. That’s right.
Ryan Booth [00:24:11] That’s what it’s for.
Jerry Quijano [00:24:11] Well, you all really did create a new, great Texas movie, and one that will be celebrated by lots of folks. Hopefully our listeners will catch it soon. It’s gonna be playing a few more times during South by Southwest.
Ryan Booth [00:24:23] When is that happening? Saturday at 3.30 at the Violet Crown and then we play again on Tuesday night at the Rollins Center for our final screening which will be very exciting.
Jerry Quijano [00:24:33] Excellent, that is Ryan Booth, director of the film Stages, and we’ve been speaking with David Ramirez and Leslie Grace. They are stars of the films. Catch it if you can this week. It is a fantastic movie. Thank you all for the conversation, and have a great rest of your week. Thanks so much. And thank you out there for tuning in to Austin Signal. We will be back with you on Monday. Have a great weekend. Happy South by Southwest.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
