Greg Smith, joined by Penny Peace, talks with Lonnie Schlein, calling in from Dallas ahead of his visit to Las Cruces, where his work is on exhibit at the Mad Hatter Gallery. Schlein spent 35 years as a photo editor at the New York Times, and on September 11, 2001 - just his second day as the paper's Metro picture editor - he ran to the roof of his Manhattan apartment building with a 3.2-megapixel point-and-shoot, captured some of the only cityscape photographs of the towers in flames, and then raced to the Times newsroom to oversee the paper's entire photographic coverage of the attacks. That work, including the editorial decisions around the "falling man" images, earned the Times a Pulitzer Prize. The conversation covers Schlein's decades directing coverage of presidential elections and major world events, his humanitarian photography work since leaving the Times, and his plans for his Las Cruces visit.
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Greg Smith talks with Rani Bush, business operations manager at Spaceport America and past president of the Las Cruces Astronomy Club, and Liz Vega of Visit Las Cruces, about the 2026 Las Cruces Space Festival running September 19 through October 4 under the theme "Space Unites Us." The two guests trace southern New Mexico's deep connections to space history, from astronaut training at Kilbourne Hole and the White Sands missile range to Spaceport America's location at high altitude partly inside existing air traffic corridors around the range, and make the case that space exploration and earthly problems are not competing priorities but symbiotic ones. The conversation covers a packed festival schedule including a Space Art Show at The Hood, International Observe the Moon Night at the Plaza, Space Trivia Night, an NMSU Astronomy Night at O'Donnell Hall, and a Spaceport America Open House on September 26 requiring advance reservations. Full schedule and information at lcspacefestival.com.
Greg Smith talks with Mary Diesel, teaching artist, and Penny Peace, arts connector and advocate, about Creative Kids, an El Paso-based nonprofit that ran a four-month pilot program at the Doña Ana County Juvenile Detention Center earlier this year. Diesel, one of two teaching artists who worked with groups of up to ten detained youth on weekends, describes the program's core philosophy: using art not to label or define young people by what brought them there, but to help them rediscover a more capable version of themselves, one that can stick with something, take responsibility, and finish what they started. The conversation broadens into a discussion of how Las Cruces has quietly become a community that takes public art seriously and what that says about the city's values. A student exhibition from the program was displayed at the Doña Ana Government Center; the self-portraits now hang inside the Juvenile Detention Center itself.
Greg Smith talks with Lonnie Klein, conductor of the Festival Orchestra de Las Cruces, about the ensemble's upcoming Red, White, and Blue All-American Concert on Sunday, September 6 at 3 p.m. at Atkinson Recital Hall. Klein built the 80-minute program entirely around American composers, centering on what he calls the top three - Bernstein, Copland, and Gershwin - with Copland's Lincoln Portrait narrated by Doña Ana County District Attorney Fernando Macias, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue performed by guest pianist Ilya Yakushev, and a John Williams set including a movement from Schindler's List featuring concertmaster Bridget McCarthy on violin. The conversation ranges from the logistical challenge of preparing a 68-to-72-piece orchestra in just three rehearsals to Klein's upcoming conducting engagements in Barcelona, South Bend, and Michigan. Tickets by phone at (575) 642-4819 or (575) 640-3844, and at White's Music Box and St. Paul United Methodist Church.
Cafe con Leche: Gena Bermudez & Michael Valenzuela on the Las Cruces Public Schools Foundation8/11/2026
Greg Smith talks with Gena Bermudez, executive director of the Las Cruces Public Schools Foundation, and Michael Arvizu Valenzuela, operations director, about the nonprofit that has been quietly filling funding gaps in Las Cruces public education since 1998. Bermudez explains how the foundation functions as a private partner to LCPS, channeling community donations into innovative teaching grants of up to $4,999, supply mini-grants for teachers, and nearly 40 student scholarships covering everything from performing arts and agriculture to culinary arts, Eagle Scout achievement, and trade school for students with lower GPAs. Valenzuela, who has spent years cultivating local donors and building the scholarship portfolio, describes the satisfying circle the foundation creates: community members fund opportunities, students stay and succeed locally, and the investment comes back to the valley. Applications for teacher grants open this month; scholarship applications open in January.
Greg Smith talks with Staci Mays, provider relations representative for Mesilla Valley Hospice, about Men Who Cook, the organization's fundraiser taking place August 15th at the Las Cruces Convention Center. Now in its 18th year and still growing, the event fills the Convention Center with amateur chefs competing across four categories (appetizer, side dish, main dish, and dessert) and judged by a panel of 17, with a tip jar competition running alongside where all proceeds go directly to the hospice. Greg and Staci also discuss the broader work of Mesilla Valley Hospice, which helps individuals and families plan assisted living and end-of-life care before a crisis makes those conversations harder.
Greg Smith talks with Dr. Jon Hunner, retired NMSU history professor and longtime Las Cruces historian, about the Declaration of Independence at 250 years. Hunner draws a careful distinction between the Declaration as an inspiring ideal and the Constitution as the working machinery of government, and traces how the document's core ideas spread from the American Revolution through France, Latin America, and beyond. The conversation takes a distinctly New Mexican turn as Hunner connects the Declaration's right to resist unjust government to the region's own history of resistance — from the Pueblo Revolt through Nuevomexicano pushback against the U.S. arrival — and explains the long, stumbling road to New Mexico statehood in 1912, including the little-known episode he calls the "fatal handshake." Hunner closes with a simple recommendation: read the Declaration, all of it, then do the same with the Constitution.
Greg Smith talks with Caitlin Beesley, the City of Las Cruces Historic Preservation Specialist, and Dr. Jerry Wallace, chair of the Historic Preservation Committee (HPC) and NMSU instructor, about protecting the city's architectural heritage and why Las Cruces possesses a unique character that extends well beyond its familiar historic districts. Wallace makes the case for a formal one-, three-, and five-year preservation plan to hold the city accountable and engage a broader array of community partners. The conversation covers Wallace's personal watch list (which includes the Mesilla Valley Mall and the University Avenue corridor), upcoming nominations for the City Register of Cultural Properties, ongoing restoration work on the Pioneer Women's Park gazebo, and Beesley's view of her role: acting as a process facilitator to help community members tell their own stories about local buildings.
Greg Smith talks with Topher Lininger, the man running day-to-day operations at the Rio Grande Theatre, as the Las Cruces landmark marks its centennial. The building opened on July 29, 1926, with a screening of the silent film Mare Nostrum, was bought by Fox three years later, and has been a permanent fixture of Main Street ever since. Lininger traces his own 14-year tenure, from being hired by the Doña Ana Arts Council in 2011 to oversee a lighting upgrade to transitioning with the property when the city took over. He details the theater's active modern role hosting plays, musicals, classic film screenings, local premieres, and the Las Cruces International Film Festival awards show, alongside an expanding lineup of dance, concerts, drag, burlesque, and variety programming.
Greg Smith talks with Carol Brey, director of the City of Las Cruces Quality of Life Department, about the surprisingly broad portfolio her department oversees: the Branigan Library system, four city museums, senior programs, and public art. Brey traces a career that moved from library administration in Illinois and El Paso to overseeing 600 American Spaces cultural centers for the U.S. State Department in nearly 130 countries before she returned to Las Cruces in 2022. The conversation covers the city's growing public art program (now including 20 art pieces at bus stops), the "Made You Look" selfie campaign encouraging residents to interact with public art, and the latest on the Amador Hotel restoration — exterior work resuming soon and a $4.8 million state grant in hand to bring the first floor back into public use.
Greg Smith talks with Travis Owens, operator of TheBank, a 16,000-to-20,000-square-foot complex on West Amador, about his plans to turn it into what he describes as Las Cruces' missing community hub. Owens envisions a multi-use venue with six stages, gallery and studio space, a podcast room, a photography wall, game and movie nights, and a garage band stage located in the back garage building, all anchored by an existing dispensary and two Roku television channels he runs, including Cruces Public Access. The conversation also touches on the neighboring Amador Hotel, a potential youth program focused on film and music production, and Owens' personal story: an entrepreneur with autism who runs on a tight routine with minimal sleep and five alarms, door-dashing until 1 a.m. before heading back to the studio to code.
Greg Smith talks with Garland Courts, Deputy Director of Quality of Life for the City of Las Cruces, about the four city museums he oversees and the history behind each one. Courts traces the system from its origins at the Brannigan Cultural Center, a 1935 former library building he calls "the mothership," through the Museum of Art, the Museum of Nature and Science (which moved from a spot next to J.C. Penney's at the mall to its current home in a former bank downtown in 2012), and the Railroad Museum in a 1910 depot that BNSF sold to the city for a dollar. The conversation ranges from the recent passing of Zilla, a 70-pound snapping turtle who had been with the museum since the mall days, to upcoming programming including a Mexican mask traveling exhibit opening July 17, Bug Fest on August 15, and Moonlight, an adults-only evening series for those who prefer their museums without the crowd noise.
Greg Smith talks with Irene Brink, artistic director of Singing Out Las Cruces, about the city's LGBTQ+ and ally community choir as it marks its 15th anniversary year. Brink, who joined as a singer before taking over as artistic director in 2016, describes a 40-plus member mixed-voice ensemble she believes is the only one of its kind in New Mexico. The conversation covers their upcoming Greatest Hits concert at the Rio Grande Theatre on June 27th and 28th and Brink's parallel life teaching choir and drama to middle schoolers in Las Cruces Public Schools. Tickets at singingoutlascruces.org.
Greg Smith talks with Derrick Lee, musician, retired music educator, and founder of the New Mexico Juneteenth Jazz Arts Festival, about the history of Juneteenth and what Las Cruces has planned to mark it this year. Lee traces the holiday to June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arriving in Galveston finally enforced the Emancipation Proclamation over two years after it was issued, and reflects on how that long delay echoes through American history and daily Black experience today. The conversation turns to this year's festival, running June 17–21, which Lee has built largely on grassroots support. All concerts are free and open to the public. Find the full schedule at newmexicojuneteenthjazzartsfestival.org.
Greg Smith talks with Monica Le Baron, Las Cruces artist, certified yoga therapist, and author of Sleep Simplified, about a life that has woven creativity and wellness together across four countries and four languages. Le Baron describes coming to painting relatively recently, working on wood panels with acrylics, and finding that her art and her sleep coaching draw from the same well: both are about helping people regulate their nervous system, find calm, and give themselves permission to be a beginner. The conversation also covers her involvement with the Artists of Picacho Hills, which she jumped into just months after moving to the area. Her book is available at monicalebaron.com.
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