“Trashion Fashion” is recycling in style—reusing items and clothing to create art, jewelry, attire and objects for the home.

David Aguirre, the creator of the Presidio Fashion Exchange, believes that now is the time for Tucson creatives to strut their fashion stuff.

Aguirre started the Presidio Fashion Exchange in September—but this is not your usual clothing swap. Instead, the event is based on recycling, re-purposing and reusing.

Aguirre said that items that have outlived their original purpose are considered trash—but look at them from a new perspective, and they can often be re-purposed into new forms of beauty and use.

The event is a creative market, with a variety of artsy, re-purposed and recycled items. It’s a place to display work, pick up odds and ends, and get ideas on ways to reuse and re-purpose.

Tucson area artists and designers are invited to sell work at the fashion exchange. It’s free to set up a booth, and chairs and tables are provided.

“This is a group of like-minded creatives advocating recycling and re-purposing, and showing that fantastic beauty can be the result,” said Aguirre.

The event is free, and items cost anywhere from $1 to $100.

There is also be a District Clothing Trade table, featuring clothing that is ready to be passed on and recycled. Bring at least five items, and take as many new-to-you items as you will use.

The Presidio Fashion Exchange takes place most Saturday mornings, from 8 a.m. to noon, in the Dinnerware Artspace Parking Lot, 425 W. Sixth St. For more information, search for “Presidio Fashion Exchange” on Facebook.

Hey, playwrights, actors, and anyone else who loves the stage, or hell, just loves performing for others: the Tucson Fringe Festival wants you!

From their website, tucsonfringe.org:

Fringe doesn’t curate. Fringe is different. Fringe loves new work. Fringe restores the artist’s creative influence. Fringe doesn’t charge you an arm and a leg. Fringe doesn’t tell you to eat your vegetables. Fringe gives all the money back to the artist. Fringe is a laboratory for ideas. Fringe is the future of performance. Fringe is community. Fringe is awesome.

Seems biased, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt — if only because their call for performers says that they welcome playwrights, really talented sign twirlers, state legislators (and other clowns) and pretty much anyone or anything willing to perform with them.

For more on Tucson Fringe Festival, check out their website — they've got descriptions of the last two years of Fringe, as well as photos and links to Fringe's origins.

For those wishing to just spectate, we've got you covered too: Tucson's Third Annual Fringe Festival is set to take place March 1-3, 2013. Circle those calendars, people.

Last year, Arizona Between Nosotros organized a series of performing-arts events, and took their work over the border to Nogales, Sonora. This year, they return with Indebted/Endeudado, tonight (Saturday, Sept. 29), from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), 265 S. Church Ave.

The night's theme is debt: Financial debt, emotional debt, political debt, and social debt. From organizers:

Indebted/Enduedado is a multi-disciplinary, multi-lingual event featuring performance art, devised theatre, and video, exploring what it means to be in debt. The visually and emotionally striking evening of multidisciplinary performance is Saturday, September 29, 2012 from 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm in MOCA’s Great Hall.

Presenting artists include Paco Velez, Sarah K Smith, Logan Phillips, Denise Uyehara, Heather Gray, Adam Cooper-Terán, Yvonne Montoya, Cyndi LaFrese, and Jason Aragon. Curated by Sarah K Smith and Paco Velez.

Tickets available at the door the evening of the performance. $5 for MOCA members, $8 for non-members.

A panel discussion about the performance is on Wednesday, October 3, 2012 from 6:30 — 7:30 pm at MOCA.

It's time for the 6th Annual Celebration of Music and Culture Charity Event, a multi-genre showcase that hosts a variety of professional musicians. It will be hosted at the TCC Leo Rich Theater on Sunday, September 30, 2012, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $40.

The event's proceeds will support the Tucson Musicians Museum Mentor Program for Youth. TMM's Mentor Program will give the guidance of a qualified professional musician to youth who otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford this service. TMM would like to develop sustained youth/mentor relationships and reach out to as many young people as possible. It will be the support of the community that helps to make this program successful for Tucson's youth.

The evening will include live performances by this year's inductees, free appetizers, a cash bar, a silent auction, and a ceremony for this year's inductees, including Brian, David and Howard Bromberg.

For more information, including ticket info and a full list of inductees and performers, see below the jump.

Casey Chimneystar Condit was about 13 years old when she began to question her sexuality. And like so many LGBT teens, Condit was afraid to voice those questions to her family.

One of Condit’s closest friends spoke to her about a youth-support group at Wingspan, Southern Arizona’s LGBT community center. “My friend told me about her experience going to the support group,” Condit said. “I started feeling the rumbling of bravery in myself, and I decided to try to go, too.”

After a lot of effort, Condit defeated her fears and finally attended one of the meetings. More than 15 years after taking that first step, Condit is now Wingspan’s acting director of programs.

“She is one of Wingspan’s many success stories,” said Cynthia Garcia, a member of the Wingspan dinner committee.

Wingspan has been around for about 24 years. The organization offers a safe haven for LGBT people who have been victims of bullying, are homeless or who don’t have support from their families. Some of the services the organization provides include anti-violence programs, the Homeless Youth Project, the Eon Youth Program and Senior Pride.

The 14th annual Wingspan Dinner will help raise funds for those services. “Another purpose for the dinner is community-building,” Garcia said, “for everyone to come together and celebrate the accomplishments of the LGBT community and our allied community.”

The dinner features David Morden of the Rogue Theatre as emcee; a performance by Palm Springs, Calif.-based comedian Shann Carr; and a keynote address by Susan Stryker, the author of many books on LGBT topics, including Transgender History. She is also a professor at the University of Arizona.

During the event, Wingspan also will announce the winners of its Community Awards. Dancing and casino games will follow the dinner

“I hope people who attend the event take away tremendous memories of a joyful night,” Condit said. “I hope they take away the message that Wingspan is a thriving organization working to grow in a sphere that we need the community to be a part of.”

Admission is $125; purchase tickets before Tuesday, Sept. 25, by calling 624-1779. The dinner takes place at 7 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 29, at the JW Marriot Starr Pass Resort and Spa, 3800 W. Starr Pass Blvd.

RAW: Tucson provides an eclectic mix of artists with a place to showcase their unique talents and originality—and to be noticed by a larger audience.

The next RAW event will take place on Thursday, Sept. 27, at Plush. Each event includes a short independent film, a musical performance, a fashion show, an art gallery, performance art, a hairstylist and a makeup artist. These artists all come together on one night to exhibit a wide variety of creativity.

“At every showcase, we book a new group of amazing local artists that are hand-selected,” said Laura Fischer, the event director for RAW. She helps pick the artists who participate by searching online, going to local events and looking through the submissions that RAW receives via its website.

This month's event will feature a variety of gifted independent artists. One will be a unique and interesting fashion designer, called Bling-Cycle, who uses all recycled materials to make original, distinct pieces for the fashion-show component.

“I know that two of the bands featured in the next showcase, The Outlaw Rebels and Karma Breakdown, are a lot of fun” says Fischer, “but they are all really amazing artists, so it's hard to pick and choose.”

There are always artists and photographers selling their original pieces, and attendees will find some accessory designers selling their wares as well.

Come support local artists and get inspired by the array of talents that will be presented at Plush on Thursday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m. The tickets are $10 pre-sale, and $15 at the door.

Visit the Raw website for more information.

Logan Phillips - "South Tucson" / "Sonoran Strange (excerpt)" from dirtyverbs on Vimeo.

If you've got 11 minutes to spare today, make sure to give a look at this performance by Logan "Dirtyverbs" Philips, a Southern Arizona native who gives a rousing bilingual performance on life on the South Side and in the Sonoran at Skrappy's during "Tucson Stand Up!" on Aug. 31.

For more on Philips, check out his website here.

Gail Browne, the executive director of the University of Arizona's Poetry Center, has announced that she will be stepping down from her position effective June 30, 2013.

From the University of Arizona's press release announcing the move:

During her time at the Poetry Center, Browne oversaw the capital campaign for and construction of the Center’s landmark building. The Helen S. Schaefer Building was the first of three major poetry facilities built in the past five years. (The others are Poets’ House in New York and the Poetry Foundation building in Chicago.) Among her many achievements, Browne oversaw the launch of voca, the Center’s online digital archive of literary readings; the proliferation of on-site youth and adult education programs; and a series of acclaimed international symposia on poetics. During her tenure, the Poetry Center has seen a significant increase in philanthropic support.

Browne, who has been executive director of the Poetry Center since 2002, had this to say in the release:

“While it is difficult to imagine leaving the Poetry Center—a place I love beyond measure—this is the perfect time to bring in new leadership and ideas. Over the past fifty years the Poetry Center has grown into its role as a leading destination for the celebration of poetry and creative expression in the U.S. It is poised to take on a new vision and achieve even greater aspirations in the next era. I am eager to see how the Center will continue to inspire and engage.”

I can't begin to tell you how excited I am for next month's Tucson Meet Yourself — though, for the record, it's somewhere just above "ooh, there's that Clif bar I've been searching for; lunch ahoy!" and below the occasional realization that I, as an adult, can eat bacon whenever I want.

Now, I'm still trying to figure out which days and which times I'll be hitting, but I'll tell you right now that I'm already intrigued by any group that calls themselves the "Flying Tortillas Breakdancers" (performing at noon on Friday, Oct. 12).

Check out tucsonmeetyourself.org to see the schedule for yourself.

Great news from the fine folks at the Rogue Theatre:

Dear friends!

We have such exciting news! We just found out that The Rogue Theatre has been chosen as one of ten theatre companies nationwide to receive the National Theatre Company Award from the American Theatre Wing.

The American Theatre Wing is best known as being the Founder of the Tony Awards. Three years ago, they began this award program to recognize outstanding emerging theatre companies across the country. It comes with a $10,000 award for operating expenses and considerable prestige. The award is made to 10 companies from all over the U.S. who "have articulated a distinctive mission, cultivated an audience, and nurtured a community of artists in ways that strengthen and demonstrate the quality, diversity, and dynamism of American theatre."

None of this would be possible without you. Thank you for your enthusiastic support and for being such a valuable part of The Rogue.

To see the listing of The Rogue among the other top companies, visit the American Theatre Wing website.

With much love, The Rogues