Take a look around the city and you’re sure to find that Tucson is an immense melting pot that highlights cultures from all over the world. Whether you find that in food, religion or cultural events there’s one day of the year that displays the colorful palette of Tucson’s residents right in the heart of downtown.

While many see the All Souls Procession as a local Dia de los Muertos, the two-decade-long tradition is meant to be inclusive of all cultures in the community rather than a spin-off of the Mexican holiday, according to Melanie Cooley, a long-time participant and volunteer coordinator for the procession.

“The procession doesn’t endorse a culture,” Cooley said. “Every culture has its own traditions of honoring the dead and some cultures have healthier traditions than others. One of the reasons that the procession exists is because Anglo, Euro-American culture doesn’t have healthy traditions for remembering the dead.”

The first procession started back in 1990 by local artist Susan Johnson. At the time, Johnson was grieving the loss of her father and wanted to find a unique way to celebrate his life. The procession started out small, with just a few local artists, but soon blossomed into a large parade when participants joined by the hundreds and now thousands.

With more than 100,000 people attending the procession over the last couple of years, Cooley said volunteers have been able to make the experience bigger than ever while staying true to the main cause: celebrating life and death.

Every year, procession director Nadia Hagen chooses a central theme for the evening. This year’s theme revolves around predator and prey in a way to identify the crucial relationship between the two and how they both rely on one another.

“Our theme this year is the hunter and the hunted, and finding the relationship of humans in that cycle, that vital relationship because we are both predator and prey,” Cooley said. “Death feeds life. We who live are dependent on death. The death of other beings literally feeds the food we eat.”

The volunteers mingling throughout the crowd will dress as various types of predator and prey, ranging from cattle to wolves. Every year, urn bearer is presented with a custom-made sculpted mask that reflects the theme procession. This year, the bearer will wear a jaguar mask to reflect a Central American myth that portrays the animal as guardian of the underworld.

The UA's Mexican-American Studies students will be hosting this year’s Day of the Dead altar set up and showing on Wednesday, Nov. 2.

The date Nov. 2 is traditionally recognized to give tribute and honor the lives of the deceased. In Mexican Indigenous tradition, death is seen as natural part of life and not something to be feared. As a memorial to the deceased, altars are set up as offerings that display images, favorite foods, and other tokens that were personal to the deceased. Marigolds, candles, pan de muertos, and sweets are also offerings set on altars.

This all day affair will begin on 8 a.m. with the altar viewings open to the public. This years student altars are dedicated to both national and local figures in social justice struggle and popular culture and to the lives of migrants crossing the desert.

Display images, favorite foods, marigolds, candles, pan de muertos, and sweets as offerings on the altar to the Cesar E. Chavez building (1110 James E. Rogers Way) in room 205 at this free event.

Get more information about the event on the UA's website.

In a weekend filled with sustainability initiatives, UNESCO will hold a conference in the UA North Ballroom (1303 E. University Blvd.) to address water scarcity and management as well as desert food systems on Friday, Nov. 4 and Saturday, Nov. 5 until 5 p.m.

Sustainability scholars from Oman, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe and Mexico will meet with UA researchers and Tucson community members to talk about climate change and the earth's environment.

According to UANews, conference organizers are expecting 230 community members to attend the conference including international dignitaries, students and faculty. This is a free, all-ages event and space is limited. Online registration is now closed but attendees are encourages to register in-person the day of the conference.

For more information click here. 

In need of some local Instagram inspiration? Look no further. These four Instagram accounts have done an exceptional job in harnessing the unique essence of Tucson, while still maintaining their own personality. Great aesthetic and with a local focused—what could be better right? 

1. Tucson Fashion Week

#Repost @adaatude ・・・ @tucsonfashionweek was a total blast & I was blown away by the presentation at @moca_tucson on Friday evening. Can we talk about a PERFECT fashion runway venue?! 💜 I've recapped my experience from all the shows & I've shared some of the best photos I took on adaatude.com 📸 #tucsonfw #mhsstylist #ptaylorllc #visittucson #mytucsonmoment #freeyourself #azfoothills

A photo posted by Tucson Fashion Week (@tucsonfashionweek) on Oct 21, 2016 at 5:01pm PDT

Tucson Fashion Week may be over, but that doesn't mean that the fabulous photos have to stop. All throughout the year they post glamorous and high quality shots that would make any fashion lover proud. 

2. Tasting Tucson 

👇🏼 Tag a Friend 👇🏼 . 🍴 Reforma Cocina & Cantina • Carne Asada Tacos . 📍4310 N Campbell Ave at St. Philip's Plaza ☎️ 520.8674134 📷 Taster: @suzanneambrosio . #tastingtucson #tucson #arizona #tucsoneats #reforma #tacos #carneasada #dinner #foodporn #tacotuesday

A photo posted by Tasting Tucson (@tastingtucson) on Oct 25, 2016 at 7:19pm PDT

For all my Tucson foodies, this is the account for you. From sweet to savory, from fast food to high end, Tasting Tucson has the posts to make your stomach grumble.

I feel something akin to culture shock when I walk into Tucson Fashion Week on Friday night. The showroom and patio at the Museum of Contemporary Art are full of bodacious babes with mega hair and clothes that are too cool—even for Buffalo Exchange.

The three-day event, which began Thursday, Oct. 13, featured different venues, designers, music performances, food and drink each night.  Maybe it’s from living too long in this laid-back desert town, but I’m out of place. The only thing I have that I can relate this scene to is Sex and the City. (Yes, I’m a child of the ‘90s.) So I just imagine I’m Carrie and dive in. Although the lights, the music, the heels and the clothes that seem to defy gravity are unlike an average Friday night downtown, the fashion week’s roots are all Tucson.

“Hopefully we can spread the love a little bit and bring a little awareness around fashion to our community,” says TFW co-director Paula Taylor, who’s worked in fashion for 20 years. “We have this incredible community with so much talent here, and nobody gets to showcase it.”

Taylor and her cohort Melanie Sutton curated the show with local and national talent.
“We’re actually a really international city, and I think we’re starving for content,” Taylor says. “If we provide the platform people will actually come.”

Four years ago, TFW founder Elizabeth Denneau was running the show as a small artsy production. Taylor and Sutton bought it and turned it into the national production it is today.

One of Friday’s presentations features the designs of Tucson-born Quinlan Wilhite. Founder of the fashion company Qmulative, Wilhite began sewing only three years ago when he had an idea for a shirt and asked his grandmother to show him how to sew.

Bookmans Entertainment Exchange is turning 40 and you should join in the celebration by participating in its 40 years in 40 days social media scavenger hunt. Don't dawdle, the challenge has already begun! The 40 days started Wednesday, Oct. 5 and will run through Sunday, Nov. 13 at all six Bookmans Entertainment Exchange locations.  

The details:

We’re turning 40! Join Bookmans as we celebrate four decades full of books, video games, movies, music and fun! Follow Bookmans on social media for your chance to #win some awesome prizes! Every day for forty days we will post a daily directive to social media asking customers to head to Bookmans to complete a task. Simply complete the task and take your best pic in front of our “Bookmans turns 40!” display. Be sure to tag @bookmans and your local store to be entered to win. Winners will be chosen using random.org and the more friends in your pic the more times you are entered. So grab your #squad and head to Bookmans as we celebrate 40 rad years with a scavenger hunt to end all scavenger hunts!

With recent news that sister store Bookmans Sports Exchange would be closing its doors (stop by for discounts!), it is nice to know that people do still believe that one man's trash can be another man's treasure. And, 40 years of that philosophy is definitely something to celebrate!

Check in here for more information on the competition.

Whiskey lovers, Good Oak Bar (316 E. Congress St.) is calling your name this Thursday, Sept. 29.

If you want an education experience all about whiskey, get excited because Charlie Garrison of Garrison Brothers Distillery in Texas is hosting a seminar at the bar from 3-4 p.m. You'll want to RSVP for the event and it'll cost you $10.

The party really begins at the 6 p.m. with Garrison and Tucson's Stephen Paul from Hamilton Distillery, both of whom will be hanging out during the event to talk about their original whiskeys.

What more can you ask for? Good Oak promises bourbon-friendly food (including barbecue burgers!) on the menu, plus country and blues vinyl all night long.

As September comes to an end, it is finally that time of year once again. The annual Tucson Meet Yourself Folklife Festival is upon us in just two short weeks. Tucson Meet Yourself is a festival that celebrates Tucson in all of its glory, bringing together local artisans, musicians, cooks and dancers, and putting them all in once place with the goal of spending a weekend celebrating the history and traditions that make Tucson so great. 
This year Tucson Meet Yourself is looking for volunteers to make the 43-year-old festival a reality once again. Volunteering to help with Tucson Meet Yourself is a perfect way to give back to our community that gives us so much daily.

Visit http://www.tucsonmeetyourself.org/volunteer/ for steps on how to sign up to help. 

Creative Juice Art Bar (6530 E. Tanque Verde Road) and Gifted Custom Art will team up on Saturday, Oct. 1 to raise money for the local Boys and Girls Clubs in Tucson. You don't have to be a modern Monet to attend this painting philanthropy event.

The concept is simple: Gifted provides a photo for you and your friends to convert into a painted masterpiece and Creative Juice gives you a place to do it. Registration to the Gifted Giving event is $55 per person and every registration gives one painting experience to a child at the Boys and Girls Club of Tucson - Frank and Edith Morton Clubhouse.    

For more information on how to register, click here. 

It's National Library Card Month! The Pima County Public Library is teaming up with the American Library Association to ensure that everyone in the community gets their hands on a library card. The best part about the library is that it's free, but you have to have a library card. If you are on the fence about getting a card, the county library has recruited the help of the Peanuts characters like Snoopy to help convince you. 

To learn more about how you can get a library card to one of the 27 libraries in the county visit: www.library.pima.gov

If you're not sure what to use your new library card for, check out book recommendations from Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, Lucy and Schroeder.