If you didn't have a chance to see Adam Cooper-Terán and Logan Phillips of Verbo•bala's Sonoran Stage last night or in previous productions, please, please go see it tonight.

Adam and Logan are leaving us to take the production to Germany, so a chance to see this beautiful poem staged and doing what it does best: getting to the heart of our love and life in crazyland Arizona.

Starts at 8:30 p.m., bring cash to donate, at the Global Justice Center, 225 E. 26th St., South Tucson.

From Sonoran Strange:

What if the Catalina Mountains outside Tucson dreamed of one day jumping the border of horizon, to follow their dreams of becoming thunderheads? What if the Apaches had won? What if the saguaros were sent to boarding school in Pennsylvania? What if the snowbirds don't come home to roost, if the tumbleweeds decide to settle down? What if sand shoots from the sprinklers? What if the water runs out?

A performance installation incorporating spoken word, performance art and live video projection to take audiences on a unique and dream-like trip across the borderlands of the US and Mexico. Sonoran Strange is a remix of myths, a technological ceremony and a celebration of the oral tradition.

Presented in the round, audiences surround the performers and are encouraged to move throughout the space during the performance.

Creators and performers Adam Cooper-Terán and Logan Phillips of Verbo•bala use the Sonoran Strange to explore the deep contradictions and ironies of the landscape and culture of their homeland. Created partly in response to the latest wave of anti-immigration legislation in Arizona and debuted on the state centennial in 2012, Sonoran Strange is a love-letter to the desert land and an indictment of human folly. Sonoran Strange is place-based transdisciplinary storytelling with universal connections.

Development of the piece supported in part by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Tucson Pima Arts Council and the Belle Foundation. Barrel Cactus projection structure designed by Benjamin Hall design+build and fabricated by Benjamin Hall and Carrie Morgan.

It's finals week, so here's something to help you from studying: A viral video inspired by Disney's latest blockbuster, Frozen. Point Loma Nazarene University students Olivia Mowry and Jené Nicole Johnson filmed a mini-musical parody of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" called "Do You Want to Go to Starbucks?" It's a cute jingle that will get stuck in your brain even if you don't enjoy coffee.

Back in November, Tucson Weekly ran a story by Robert Alcaraz about the fourth graders from Manzo Elementary School who have undertaken research to help Biosphere 2's researchers and their massive ecology experiment, the Landscape Evolution Observatory. This past Saturday, April 26, Manzo was back again at Biosphere 2, this time to present artwork created by the students from their nine-month long partnership with Biosphere 2 and the University of Arizona's School of Geography and Development. Tanner Clinch was there to cover the event.

A group of bustling fourth graders depart from a bus, bumping into one another, clinging to get the first look at a new art exhibit, which features their artwork.

Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Ariz., hosted the Landscape Evolution: An Art Show on Saturday, April 26, 2014, that showcased artwork by fourth graders from Manzo Elementary School in Barrio Hollywood, a neighborhood west of Tucson. The exhibit featured work by the students who have spent the last nine months working on a seed experiment in conjunction with researchers at Biosphere 2 and the University of Arizona.

Originally designed to replicate the atmosphere and ecology of earth, Biosphere 2 now stands as a research facility to better understand how plants and the environment in different controlled experiments. Last year, Manzo Elementary School approached Biosphere 2 and the University of Arizona School of Geography and Development to work together on a project that would help promote hands-on science and math education in the classroom.

The event on Saturday, held at the Biosphere 2’s B2 gallery, featured art created by the students, which displays how climate change works. Many of the parents of students were there, showing their support and learning how the teachers of their kids have come up with this idea of teaching through research in a presentation, which took place next to the exhibit in the Sahara Room.

(more after the jump)

One last reminder, Tucson, author Junot Diaz will be at the Tucson Fox Theatre tonight, and I was pleasantly reminded that the evening, while a suggested $15 admission/donation ($25 for special VIP reserved seating), is pay-what-you-can. Hey, not only is this an interesting week at Weekly World Central, but it is technically the week before payday and this reminder is good news.

So ultimately, you have no choice if you know what's good for you, and believe me Diaz is good for you.

I love this interview he did with Bill Moyers. Perhaps, tonight, we'll be treated with such gems and wise perspectives, with Diaz leaving us in better shape then he found us—dear lord I hope so. And big thanks to the Tucson Pima Arts Council and the Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry for making it happen (I really, really love those guys, too).

"There is an enormous gap between the way the country presents itself and imagines itself and projects itself and the reality of this country,” Díaz tells Bill. “Whether we’re talking about the Latino community in North Carolina. Whether we’re talking about a very active and I think in some ways very out queer community across the United States. Or whether we’re talking about an enormous body of young voters who are either ignored or sort of pandered to or in some ways, I think that what we’re having is a new country emerging that’s been in the making for a long time.”

Yesterday, we ran an interview with author Junot Díaz, who'll be at the Fox Theatre from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 23. This was made possible thanks to the Tucson Pima Arts Council and Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry. $15 suggested donation or $25 VIP reception and reserved seating.

And yes, we're going to be obnoxious every day for the next week, because Junot Díaz is coming to town.

In late March, still high from the Festival of Books, Weekly World Central, well, squealed all girly like when the Tucson Pima Arts Counciil and the Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry announced Junot Díaz was coming to the Moldy Pueblo. The author of This Is How You Lose Her, Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Dominican Republic born and New Jersey raised, will be at the Tucson Fox Theatre, 17 W. Congress St. on Wednesday, April 23, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. (Cost is $15 suggested donation or $25 get's you a VIP reception and reserved seating. Go here for tickets.)

Díaz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and MacArthur Fellow, has gifted us with amazing stories enveloped around Dominican history, the immigrant experience and yeah, love and being a nerd. So when we reached out to his agent for an interview, it was probably a good thing the writer's busy schedule meant he'd only be able to respond to our questions by email—allowing a reporter to save face and not turn to mush on the other end of the phone in a pool of fandom.

The fandom? Well, for many in Arizona, embarrassed by our state lawmakers' anti-immigration and anti-Mexican-American studies laws and ideology, Díaz and other writers have offered a sweet balm—a reminder, that fiction writers remain important, change lives and return us to our humanity when the outside world, well, sucks.

MacArthur Fellowship, Pulitzer Prize … how do you keep it real? Your mother?

What do I know. Is "keeping it real” short hand for authenticity or humility or fidelity to a former self or is it a combination? To be hones,t I'm not sure if I’ve ever been a fan of the authentic person of color narrative. I grew up a poor immigrant kid in NJ. And yet, to NYC Dominicans us Jersey folks weren’t truly authentic. On top of that I was a kid who liked to read books. To a lot of the neighborhood that immediately disqualified me from being authentically "hood.” And so on. The question of humility . . . This is something that’s best practiced than discoursed, but for the sake of the question, let me just say I grew up in a family that prized humility over almost all other traits. I like to think that I still show traces of that upbringing. As for loyalty to a former self—you can’t deny the person you are to satisfy the standards of someone you were. One hopes for dialogue between all our former selves, but in the end, it’s to the present we owe our true loyalties. I figure if poverty didn’t undermine my core values, then maybe privilege won’t either, but only time will tell. Ultimately prizes and accolades are wonderful (and arbitrary) strokes of fortune, but they have very little to do with the actual work of crafting books. They are temptations without question —to become prideful and vain and they certainly can fill your head with a lot of empty noise. Some people get a prize and go bananas. I get a prize and am grateful, but I also know that this is only going to increase the time it will take me to lose the noise and drop down to my deepest self.

In Latino culture, sometimes people are labeled as vendidos if it is perceived they’ve aired the community’s dirty laundry. I’ve thought of you often and what you faced after you wrote the op-ed piece about the Dominican high-court’s decision on citizenship of those of Haitian-decent and accusations of racism. You faced your share of criticism. How did you deal with it?

What we saw in the case of the Dominican Republic was a coordinated attempt to silence and intimidate critics of the sentencia that more or less denationalizes Dominicans of Haitian descent. In the DR many of the sentencia's critics had to go into hiding because the reactionary proponents of this bilious legislature initiated a campaign of terror in order to guarantee that there would be no debate, no dissension. Those of us in the Diaspora who got shit thrown at us for slamming the sentencia had it easy. I didn’t go to sleep fearing that someone would burn my house or attack me on the street. To put it simply: I’m not troubled when cowardly criminal politicians and their supporters decide to evict me from their malign vision of our nation. Who in the world would want to live in that terrifying place anyway? The vision of the nation that I belong to, that I aspire to, that I strive for, does not involve denationalization or terror. From that Dominican Republic no one can deport me.

Nancy Tokar Miller, an acclaimed painter often called Tucson's best artist, died Tuesday after a long illness.

She was known for her shimmering near-abstractions of land, sea and sky, painted in brilliant, liquid colors.

Born in 1941, Tokar Miller grew up in Los Angeles, near the ocean, but she had lived in Tucson since 1968. She studied art at the University of Arizona, earning a master's in 1971. She traveled the world with her beloved husband, Walter, and what she saw — in Asian jungles and Moorish cities — made its way into her art back home in her Tucson studio. In recent years, she was inspired by the sandhill cranes on Arizona's Willcox Playa and the beaches and mountains of Hawaii.

"We're extremely saddened by the loss of our longtime friend and artist," said Hannah Glasston, director of Etherton Gallery, which represented her. "Her death is a huge loss to us personally and to the community. She worked so hard and stuck to her vision. Her beautiful work, fortunately, is still here."

No services have yet been announced.

I had the privilege of reviewing Tokar Miller's her work many times. Below the cut is a piece I wrote in the Weekly in 2009 about her retrospective at the University of Arizona Museum of Art and a smaller show at the Temple Gallery.

If you don't understand something, the Rugrats probably has an episode dedicated to it. Nickelodeon is streaming the infamous Rugrats Passover episode in honor of the first night of the Jewish Holiday. This highly enjoyable episode was nominated for multiple awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award, and it's an informative, animated delight.

Happy Passover, Macababies.

It's the 19th anniversary of the death of Tejano music superstar Selena. The Latina pop star was murdered by her fired fan club president and clothing boutiques manager Yolanda Saldivar. According to 15 Facts You May Not Know About Selena on the Anniversary of Her Death from TheLatinoPost.com, her favorite TV show during her teen years was Moonlighting. So, in her honor, why not spend some time with Booger, Bruce and the gang.

Here's our favorite Selena hits:

Como La Flor

Bidi Bidi Bum Bum