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Shakey Graves is the comfy soundtrack to a long, solitary road trip on two-lane highways through beat, half-boarded-up western towns. See, Graves’ songs are atmospheric and narrative at once. He pens and performs them like the one-man band he once was, with driving, straightforward rhythm—oh, the suitcase kick drum and rigged tambourine. The jangle guitar pairs with endless possibilities of passing scenery, and his voice, well-worn and multi-harmonic, is good as a worry stone in hand. The lyrics are understated and literary: “Well I’m tired of losing/I used to win every night of the week/Back when sex and amphetamine were the staples of our childhood physique.” Jesus. Hailing from Austin, there’s no trace of hipster cred to Mr. Graves, too much musical integrity. Comparable to Shovels & Rope in consistency and candor, Graves deals primarily with the existential versus romantic realm, somehow calling up nostalgia and unpretentious intellect at once. With Lauren Ruth Ward on Wednesday, June 20. Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St. Doors at 7 p.m. $20-25, All ages. Details here.

The UA Art Museum. The UA’s art museum has several exhibitions up right now, including one on the evolution of women printmakers, one filled with art created by local high schoolers, an exploration of light and photography by multidisciplinary artist Richard Slechta and The Altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo, one of the most important works to come out of 15th-century Spain. Check them all out, by do try to see the exhibit "X, Y, Z: Art in Three Dimensions" which features art that’s been formed, molded, carved, cast or otherwise arranged. As you take in the art, you can reflect on what it means to take up space, cast a shadow and have texture. "X, Y, Z" is on display through Sunday, June 24. Museum is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday and closed Monday. UA Museum of Art, 1031 N. Olive Road. $8 GA, $6.50 seniors and groups of 10 or more. Free for members, students with ID, faculty, staff, military personnel, AAM members, visitors with a SNAP card or tribal ID and children. Details here.

Game Night at Casa Film Bar. Gather your family and friends for a little friendly competition (and drinks) at Casa Film Bar’s Game Night. There will be popcorn and soda, as well as a variety of local beer. The game lineup includes Jenga, Oregon Trail, Cards Against Humanity, chess, Uno and Star Trek Catan. 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 20. 2905 E. Speedway Blvd. Details here.

Treepeople. Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch has long been hailed one of indie greatest live guitar heroes—his ability to harness crowd energy and volley notes with every other onstage instrument makes for an ear-bending orchestra of noise, what some have called epic sonics. Treepeople is the band where Martsch cut his teeth. In the late ’80/early ’90s, Treepeople were the Pac Northwest’s hottest ticket. After losing Martsch to Built to Spill, the guitar-based Treepeople fizzled, but two and a half decades later, he put together this reunion tour and the response is unequivocal. Described as “organized chaos,” (much like the Velvets of yore by the Brits), the band play tracks off their first three albums alongside classic covers including The Smith’s and Dylan, each complete with raging, throat-choke guitar wallops, scratchy (pre-grunge) vocals and some sweet restrained, jangle. With Tucson’s mighty mighty Lenguas Largas, and Prism Bitch. Wednesday, June 20, 191 Toole. Doors at 7 p.m.  $20-25, 21+. Details here.

Events compiled by Emily Dieckman, Dylan Reynolds, BS Eliot, Ava Garcia and Jeff Gardner.

As part of the University of Arizona Poetry Center’s Art for Justice Film Series, the Loft Cinema will screen “The House I Live In,” a documentary offering a look into the lives of those impacted by the war on drugs in America. The 2012 film pieces together glimpses into the worlds of a dealer, a narcotics officer, a senator, a judge, an inmate and more. The film, by Eugene Jarecki, won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary films at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012.

See it at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 20 at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. Admission is free. For more details, visit The Loft website.

A major error in the historical narrative of this country's founders has been partly corrected at Monticello in Virginia.

The newly opened space at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s palatial mountaintop plantation, is presented as the living quarters of Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman who bore the founding father’s children.

The life of Sally Hemings, a slave owned by Thomas Jefferson, is an essential part of an honest recounting of the history of slavery and its importance in the early history of the United States. The two hundred year denial of her sexual relationship with Jefferson and her bearing of six children with him is historical witness to the unwillingness of the white majority to face up to the truth concerning this country's original sin. The reconstruction of Hemings's separate and unequal living quarters on the grounds and its inclusion in the tours of Monticello are a partial, far-too-late correction of the historical record.

I've spent a considerable amount of time in the years since I retired from teaching trying to correct the weaknesses in my own education. For instance, I finally read James Joyce's Ulysses a few years ago. I own that omission. The book was there all along, I knew its place in the literary canon since I was in high school, but I simply never bothered to pick it up. But I take less personal responsibility for the alarming gaps in my knowledge of the history of minorities in this country. The primary responsibility for my ignorance is the gap in the historical record created by historians who put on blinders when they wrote their many thousands of books on American history, which should be shelved in libraries in a section named, "History As Told By the Winners." The historical record has begun to be corrected over the past few decades. I'm trying to catch up as fast as I can.

A few years ago I read The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, by Annette Gordon-Reed. It is a history of Sally Hemings and her family before, during and after they were owned by Thomas Jefferson. The book shifts the usual focus of narratives about our country's founders, putting the Hemings family front and center and making Jefferson a secondary character who is discussed as he relates to the slave family.

Here's the short version of Sally Hemings's story: When Hemings was 16, in Paris with Jefferson to take care of his children, Jefferson impregnated her with the first of the six children they would have together. Jefferson denied his parentage and kept Sally and their children slaves at Monticello, only granting the children their freedom when they became adults.

For the longer version, I'm going to employ an unusual approach, starting from last Saturday and working backwards to Sally Hemings's birth.

Andrés Cano was seven years old when environmental activists fought for his grandmother. She was poisoned by beryllium inhalation from a manufacturing plant in South Tucson during the early 1990s.

Betty Villegas was just out of high school when she and her friends drove people without transportation to the local polling place to cast their votes.

Sen. Olivia Cajero Bedford was settled into her third career in the tourism industry when she was exposed to the legislative issues of the time, which inspired her to change her career once again.

These events were the seeds that rooted a passion for public service in the three of the Democratic candidates for Arizona’s 3rd Legislative District, who spoke at a community forum hosted by UNITE HERE Local 11, CASE Action, Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), Progress Now Arizona, Our Voice Our Vote (OVOV), Mi Familia Vota and Arizona Wins.