Baby, Bye Bye Bye
Hip-hop songsmith Billy Juan is leaving Santa Fe and taking his Baby Weekend project with him
On the forthcoming remixed version of his 2022 song “DisS-Figure,” Santa Fe hip-hop MC, composer and multi-instrumentalist Billy Juan digs into some of the reasons he’ll move his family out of Santa Fe this summer: “I work so hard to buy my family some food and yo that shit’s kinda rude,” he spits. “I’ll take your bootstraps and tie you up in them, too.”
Billy Juan has called Santa Fe home for the last seven years and, he says, it’s where he became the musician he is today with his project Baby Weekend. The act is a bit of an anachronism with its combination of modernistic beat making and throwback Balkan underpinnings—about the only thing of its ilk in the state. Still, with his day job as a music educator not paying out the big bucks, inflation and the rising cost of home ownership in the area, the father of two will move to Humboldt County in California to be closer to friends and family—and to have the option of buying a house.
“The whole country is insanely expensive, but this area in particular is insane,” he tells SFR of Santa Fe. “And It’s sad because I have so many good friends here.”
In particular, Billy Juan refers to the MCs and DJs of the Outstanding Citizens Collective hip-hop outfit, as well as the Korvin Orkestar Balkan brass band with which he’s played trumpet over the last several years. Before he leaves Santa Fe, however, he’ll bestow upon us a final track—the aforementioned remix—and a farewell show at Second Street Brewery’s Rufina Taproom.
“The new Baby Weekend stuff has gotten a lot more political,” he says. “I think in hip-hop there’s a healthy dose of boasting and shit-talking, which is fun and excellent, but I think we can also fall into trying to be too elevated, too conscious. On the flip side, expressing that is important. Good music is a combo of political unrest; a want to do better, to change.”
Korvin Orkestar is slated to join the Baby Weekend farewell show, as is longtime Billy Juan collaborator DJ Ickymac. (Alex De Vore)
Baby Weekend Farewell Show: 8:30 pm Saturday, June 1. Free. Second Street Brewery (Rufina Taproom), 2920 Rufina St., (505) 954-1068
Luminosity
Dallas-based oil painter Lin Medlin almost left the art world to work as a lawyer following law school at Yale—almost. In the last 10 years, however, Medlin has been able to pursue his painterly pursuits full time, and this week he’ll bring the work to the nonprofit Strata Gallery for the second time. Medlin conjures vibrant dreamlike takes on landscapes as moments in time. His locales, culled from across the Southwest and Ireland, are familiar, but only just, and are based on photos he takes himself. “This is the organic body of work becoming what it’s meant to,” Medlin tells SFR. “I was aware, though, that I was heightening the vibrancy of color, the saturation.” (ADV)
Lin Medlin: Luminous Instants reception: 5-7 pm Friday, May 31. Free. Strata Gallery, 125 Lincoln Ave., (505) 780-5403
A Thousand Words
One of the newly minted Vladem Contemporary wing of the New Mexico Museum of Art’s cooler aspects might be its attempts to amplify accessibility through its artist-in-residence program. This month’s featured artist, photographer Alex Traube, will offer free high-quality portraits for singles, groups and/or families from 11 am to 3 pm on Sunday June 2, 9, 16 and 23. “I wanted to do portraits specifically for this project to see if it would be possible to get the average Joe or Maria Public Citizen to come to the museum,” Traube explains. “We seem to see the same audiences at cultural events, museums and so forth; I thought by offering family portraits, we could get people who might not otherwise go to museums—but whose taxes pay for them—to go.” (ADV)
Alex Traube Portrait Session: 11 am-3 pm Sunday, June 1. Free. Vladem Contemporary, 404 Montezuma Ave., (505) 476-5062
Spring Fling
If there’s a better way for a living history museum to announce it’s open for the spring and summer seasons than a massive gathering of vendors, artisans, food, drinks, music, demos and more, we’ve never heard of it. El Rancho de Las Golondrinas sashays its way onto the scene with the 19th annual Santa Fe Spring Festival, a combo art fair and public gathering replete with dozens of local shopping, dining and quaffing options, plus local history and tradition. “It signifies the museum is open for the season, and it has so many things that are so New Mexico,” Director of Education and Volunteer Services Laura Griego says. “And it’s not just a big marketplace. It’s a marketplace with this beautiful backdrop; and I think there’s also a movement where people want local goods and hand-crafted items from family businesses as opposed to something from a conglomerate. We’re the perfect venue for that.” (ADV)
El Rancho de Las Golondrinas Spring Festival: 10 am-4 pm Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2. $8-$19 (kids under 12 and members free). El Rancho de Las Golondrinas, 334 Los Pinos Road, (505) 471-2261