Public Evening Astronomy Lecture Series. EDEN: A Search for Habitable Worlds within the Solar Neighborhood is providing visitors with free admission and free use of the telescope. Steward Observatory hosts as Daniel Apai lectures to students and other visitors. Event starts at 7:30 p.m. in room N210. Free. 933 N. Cherry Ave. Details Here.

Murder at Cactus Casino! For just $39 you can become a murder-solving detective at The Gaslight Music Hall. They are hosting a musical murder mystery you get to watch while chowing down on a four-course meal. What's better than food and entertainment? Trick question-nothing! Better yet, it's interactive entertainment. Throughout the night a variety of crimes are going to happen and at least one of them will be a murder; and it will be up to you to solve the crime! 6:30 p.m. every Monday night. 13005 N. Oracle Road. Details Here.

Celebrate 25 Years of India Oven.  Tucson is filled with popular Indian restaurants, and India Oven on Campbell is one of the most well-loved—as evidenced by the fact that they are celebrating an astounding quarter of a century in the Tucson culinary scene. Stop in for dinner any day over the next week to congratulate the Bhatti family on 25 years of korma, curry and tandoori. If you buy two dinner entrees, they'll give you an appetizer (samosa, onion bahaji or veggie pakora) on the house. 5- 9:45 p.m. though Oct. 21. 2727 N. Campbell Ave Details here.

Send Us Your Photos:
If you go to any of the events listed above, snap a quick pic and tag us for a chance to be featured on our social media sites! Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @tucsonweekly.

Events compiled by Brianna Lewis, Emily Dieckman, B.S. Eliot, Ava Garcia and Jeff Gardner.
 

Oh you haven't seen the cute little fish swimming around the Santa Cruz lately? No problem, come meet our rebounding native species for yourself at the Tucson Meet Yourself!

According to Pima County website, the Gila Topminnow will be at the Pima County Library in the Regional Flood Display Friday and Saturday, Oct. 12-13.

The Board of Supervisors proclaimed the Month of October as "Return of the Gila Topminnow Month". Listed as endangered since 1967, the Gila Topminnow took a long absence from the Santa Cruz river until it was rediscovered in late 2015. According to a recent Living River report, the species is booming:

“Return of the Gila topminnow highlights the importance of a lot of Pima County efforts along the Santa Cruz, from identifying the river as an important riparian area in the Sonoran Desert Conservation plan, to cleaning up the water that flows into the river, to managing this river for both flood protection and other community benefits,” Evan Canfield, Civil Engineering Manager, Pima County Regional Flood Control District, said.

The Gila Topminnow used to be one of the most common fish in the Gila River Basins, hence it was named after the Gila River. The fish now only exists in pockets, one of which includes the Santa Cruz. A lot of it has to do with the improvement of the reclaimed water that is discharged into the river.

"Water quality in this reach has rapidly improved the last 5 years since Pima County invested over $600 million in upgrades to our water reclamation facilities," according to the Sonoran Institute.

This small fish really is a big deal. Its reappearance to the Santa Cruz is considered a "living river highlight" and the next annual Living River Report is due to come out on October 14th.

The Faces of the Festival segment of Tucson Meet Yourself documents the diversity of faces, ages and cultures that come together annually for the festival. Among the faces are a Buddhist monk, Latino musician, Native American pageant winner, and perhaps even you.

"One remarkable thing about Tucson Meet Yourself that not everyone knows is that the audience is as diverse as the participants,” Kimi Eisele, the communications director of the Southwest Folklife Alliance and organizer of Faces of the Festival said. “This is somewhat unusual in the world of folklife or cultural festivals.”

Professional photographer Steven Meckler started working with Tucson Meet Yourself several years ago to capture festival attendees, but the team did not start interviewing the “faces” until 2017.

“It’s a cultural event, but it’s always individuals that create a culture,” Meckler said. “So, we wanted to get to know a little more of the people there.” 

Previously, the beautiful photos helped decorate offices, but a board member pushed for the project to be something developed on social media over the course of the year. Now, the Tucson Meet Yourself website has a section dedicated to Faces of the Festival, where it releases a new “face” more or less weekly, with a paragraph about the person.

“The project of documenting folklore is very much about learning who someone is,” Eisele said. “Not merely appreciating their look.”

Eisele said her favorite moments were when people let down their guard and showed more authentic and natural behavior.

“I like to wait for the extra story,” she said. “The thing that maybe doesn’t come out right away.”

Her favorite example of this was when she interviewed Young Miss Pascua Yaqui, a Native American pageant winner, last year. The girl, Pascuala, started talking about her culture, traditions and overall background, but after Eisele put down the recorder and explained the project to her father, Young Miss Pascua Yaqui realized she could talk about what she loved aside from her culture. Eisele proceeded to turn the recorder back on and listen to the girl talk about the cello and her love of classical music.

“To me, that was just such a powerful moment,” Eisele said. “Because she shared something unexpected about herself, something no one would ever know from just seeing her face."

Kit Estes was another “face” of the festival and few people would have filled the criteria better.

“I go to it every year,” Estes said. “I am kind of well-known there by the people who work there and the people who go there.”

Estes’ feels like he belongs wherever there’s a festival. You can often find him freestyle dancing, letting himself loose and taking in the event atmosphere while going from stage to stage.

“This is one of the few of times where there is a great mass of people are all there to do things that actually give them joy,” he said. “I think it is one of the great things Tucson has going for it.”

Meckler will take Faces of the Festival photos on Saturday, Oct. 13 near City High School.

“We just look for interesting people,” Meckler said.

For more information, visit tucsonmeetyourself.org

In Spanish the word encuentro means to meet together. Binational Encuentro: Female Migrations is a multi-day event that showcases 18 different artists and activists from Tucson, Phoenix, Douglas and Mexico City. The event provides artistic workshops, discussions and performances to address migrant issues such as gender violence when crossing the border.

Sadie Shaw is one of the artists contributing this year and is currently a student in Art and Visual Culture Education at the University of Arizona. Shaw uses her art to convey issues relating to racial identities and underlying cultural prejudices.

“It’s the artist’s responsibility to not only create beauty, but to also showcase things that are painful or ugly to look at or feel,” she said. “In this way, art can elevate the community.”

Shaw held a workshop called Universal Sign Language Game, on Thursday, Oct. 11, that encouraged people to break the barrier of spoken language. The workshop encouraged participants to communicate with each other through hand motions, laughter and facial expressions.

“I wanted to show people that even if you don't speak a certain language, you can usually communicate words or ideas without speaking,” Shaw said. “The workshop showed that even through migration, all humans can understand body language, and its not much of an obstacle as we perceive it to be.”

Local First Arizona and many community partners are launching a new signature event to connect community members of all ages to learn how to engage in localism through micro-workshops focused on topics related to sustainability, technology, and more.

Discover Local, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14, will be the kick-off event of the TENWEST Festival for 2018. TENWEST Festival welcomes more than 5,000 innovators and collaborators to experience more than 100 unique events and exhibitions in Tucson. This annual multi-day festival encourages curiosity and discovery in arts, social impact, sustainability, entrepreneurship and technology in our community.

Discover Local, hosted at the Tucson Museum of Art, will offer Tucsonans the opportunity to connect with local businesses and nonprofits through innovative hands-on activities that are educational as well as fun. Through these micro-workshop experiences and other activities, Discover Local attendees will be able to experience the power of Tucson’s local businesses and organizations. From water harvesting and earth works to technology and arts, desert gardening and urban arts culture, Discover Local will highlight ways to get involved with diverse organizations that strengthen the Tucson economy. The main goal is to connect the community to actions on localism and sustainability and understanding how the choices you make and the interactions you have each day affect the entire Tucson ecosystem.

This free and family-friendly event in partnership with Tucson Museum of Art's Second SundAZe Family Day offers free admission to the museum for residents of Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Visit the new exhibit, 30 Americans, and join in on a Kehinde Wiley inspired selfie station, art-making projects and a performance by Liudvik Luis Cutiño Cruz at 1 p.m.

On this edition of Zona Politics: Crystal Kasnoff of the Just Fix The Roads Committee stops by to explain why voters should support Pima County's Prop 463, which would generate $430 million to fix Pima County's troubled roads; Bruce Burke of the Yes on 407 campaign, which would generate $225 million to improve Tucson parks; and Tom Collins, the executive director of the Arizona Clean Elections Commission.

Tune into Zona Politics Fridays at 6:30 p.m. and Sundays at 9 a.m. on the Creative Tucson network, Cox Channel 20 and Comcast Channel 74. Listen to a radio version of the show at 5 p.m. Sundays on Community Radio KXCI, 91.3 FM. Or watch online here!

Hosted at the Gaslight Music Hall in Oro Valley, a “musical salute to freedom and liberty will be dedicated to those who have defended it” will start at 2pm on Oct. 14, 2018.

Performers will include the Manhattan Dolls, Robert Shaw and “Tucson music legend” Armen Dirtadian and a world class band singing renditions of “God Bless America,” “America The Beautiful,” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”

Not only will all of the “lyrics and melodies that make our country great” be sung in honor of the brave men and women who have served our country, but a portion of the proceeds will be donated to help our veterans who are still healing from conditions acquired while serving, like traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Established in 2014, grassroots organization Healing Veterans of Arizona has set out to do just that— help our veterans heal from conditions suffered in combat using hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), in addition to nutritional programs.

Tickets start at $40. You can buy them here.

Legislative District 11, which straddles Pima and Pinal counties, has enough Republican voters it might look like an easy win for Republicans who have held it since 2013. But don't try to tell that to Hollace Lyon, a Democrat making her second run for a house seat in the district.

Lyon started campaigning and fundraising last September and has amassed a war chest of $150,000 and counting, larger than the two Republican candidates put together. The campaign funds combined with her targeted, persistent ground game—volunteers have knocked on 13,000 doors—put her solidly in the running, especially in an election season which continues to be full of surprises.

I sat down with Hollace Lyon over coffee where we discussed the campaign and her stance on the issues.

Full disclosure: I've known Hollace for years and would love to see her pull out a win in LD-11. This post is certainly an endorsement. It's also a way to let readers know who she is.

Hollace Lyon is a moderate Democrat who has a detailed platform on her website laying out her stands on the major issues facing the state. However, she says her main focus is fiscal responsibility. She developed skills with budgets and negotiation during her 26-year career in the Air Force, and she wants to bring those skills to the legislature.

Lyon says her Air Force experience taught her she's a moderate. "One of the more important aspects I took out of the Air Force was, I learned I don't always have the answers I think I have," she said. "When I think I'm right about things, I've learned I'd better stop, get some input, weigh things and see the consequences of certain decisions before I press forward."

Lyon puts her Air Force service front and center in her campaign. "When I knock on doors," she told me, "I say to people, 'I'm a retired Air Force colonel with 26 years experience. I commanded two squadrons. I did strategic planning. I ran the NATO satellite system during the Bosnian War. I negotiated with Microsoft to save the Air Force $200 million. I negotiated fielding the NATO nuclear planning system between Turkey and Greece.'"

Lyon continued, "I want to use my skills in budgeting and negotiation to figure out where the money we've been paying into the state has gone, money that we thought was going to fund schools and fix roads." Voters have seen their taxes go up, most often at the local level "because the state has stopped paying for things they're supposed to pay for." The reason state funds have been insufficient? "You've heard this before, it's the cumulative tax giveaways. And every year, the Legislature and the governor add more."

Literacy Connects, a volunteer based program, is looking for more volunteers to help people of all ages learn the importance of literacy.

The program works to help people realize their potential in all aspects of their lives. By providing resources and help from volunteers, it gives people an opportunity to make sustainable changes in their lives.

According to their website, they provide innovative-strengths programming that motivates learners to make a change.

Literacy Connects is looking for more volunteers to help people of all different ages, races, backgrounds and cultures. Volunteers can help teach math, reading, writing, studying for the GED and other topics needed to succeed in the future.

Classes for the program are held all throughout Tucson. Tutors work in teams at libraries, schools, churches and community centers for adult students. For children in the program, tutors will work directly in their schools. Bilingual Tutors are also needed.

Literacy Connects is in need of tutors all over the city but it is more urgent in the southern and western parts of Tucson.

There are info sessions on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, which are required before training to become a tutor. For more information, go to their website.

Hosted by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, the Rape Aggression Defense (R.A.D.) course is open to women 12 and up, teaching and empowering them to protect themselves against rape and sexual assault.

Established in 1989, the R.A.D. Systems “believes self-defense should be easy to learn, easy to retain, and relatively easy to employ during confrontational situations.”

Funded by grant from the Department of Justice, the class is free to women and girls who want to learn self-defense tactics.

It will be offered on Oct. 13th and 20th, make an appointment Pima County Sheriff’s Department Community Resources Unit at (520) 351-4615.