Crosstalk: Music Venues Get More Money, Farmer’s Wife Gets a Holiday, and the UT Press Gets a Cool New Editor

Live music at Antone’s (photo by John Anderson)

The Texas Music Incubator Rebate Program is accepting applications through Nov. 30. Established by the Texas Senate last year and administered by the Texas Music Office, the initiative will distribute more than $20 million in rebates, of up to $100,000 each, to Texas music venues and festival promoters based on mixed beverage taxes or beer/wine sales tax from the previous fiscal year. Eligible applicants must have launched their businesses at least two years ago. Eligible music venues must have a capacity of 3,000 people or fewer, while festivals must be held in a county with a population of fewer than 100,000. Learn more about the program and apply at tmir.gov.texas.gov.

Farmer’s Wife are the latest Austin band to receive their own official city holiday. District 3 Council Member José Velásquez declared Aug. 29, 2024, Farmer's Wife Day in honor of the Austin Music Award-winning punks, whose drummer Jaelyn Valero works as a policy aide to Velásquez.

Hanif Abdurraqib, the Ohio-based poet, essayist, and culture critic, has joined the University of Texas Press as a series editor for its American Music Series. Abdurraqib, who published Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest via the press in 2019, joins Charles Hughes and trailblazing Living Female Rock Critic Jessica Hopper in editing the series.