coming up

Wednesday, April 8, 10-11:30am (Pacific Time)

“The Atascosa Borderlands: A Living Archive of this Unique Arizona-Sonora Region,” with Luke Takata, Documentary Photographer and Jack Dash, Naturalist and Writer

Atascosa Borderlands is a long-term visual storytelling project by Luke Takata (Documentary Photographer) and Jack Dash (Naturalist and Writer), who have collected plants, taken photos and recorded oral histories in the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands since 2017. They have worked alongside ecologists, cattle ranchers, humanitarian aid workers, migrants, hunters, ex-Border Patrol agents, and Indigenous community members to create an archive of, and to better understand this remote 42-mile section of the US-Mexico border known as the Atascosa Borderlands.

The Atascosa Highlands are an area of incredible biological diversity located within one of the most ecologically rich regions on the planet. While these mountains have been inhabited for thousands of years, the last few centuries of human activity have had a profound effect on this stretch of the US-Mexico border, making it essential to document the ecology of the region now.

To get the most out of our session, please explore their website, Atascosa Borderlands, https://www.atascosaborderlands.com/, which serves as the primary resource for our interview.

Their work offers a rare, nuanced look at how human activity and conservation efforts shape one of the most ecologically rich regions on the planet.

Wednesday, May 13, 10-11:30am (Pacific Time)

Carolyn Niethammer, A Desert Feast: Celebrating Tucson's Culinary Heritage

This discussion will explore the rich history and cultural significance of the traditional foods that have shaped the Sonoran Desert's culinary identity.

Wednesday, June 10, 10-11:30am (Pacific Time)

Daisy Hernández, Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth

Hernández explores our country’s ongoing debate about who belongs, and provides fresh ways of thinking about citizenship, exploring the challenging questions of belonging, identity, and the intricate immigrant experience in America.

Wednesday, July 8, 10-11:30am (Pacific Time)

Craig Childs, Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau

Childs' book is a journey through the ancient Southwest, interpreting the petroglyphs and pictographs that map the history of the Colorado Plateau.

Wednesday, August 12, 10-11:30am (Pacific Time)

Katherine Gaia Barbaree, Borderlands Restoration Network

Katherine will discuss articles and videos of vital environmental work being done to restore desert ecosystems and support binational wildlife corridors.

Wednesday, September 9, 10-11:30am (Pacific Time)

Álvaro Enrigue, Now I Surrender

Álvaro Enrigue will discuss his bold, visionary novel that reimagines the history of the Apache Wars and the surrender of Geronimo. Both historical and fictional, this work radically recasts the story of how the West was “won.” 

Wednesday, October 14, 10-11:30am (Pacific Time)

Lydia Otero, Storied Property: María Cordova's Casa

Lydia Otero will discuss this powerful look at the intersection of urban renewal and the erasure of Mexican American history. Centered on a historic home in Tucson’s center, the book highlights themes of displacement and investigates how history is written and who gets remembered.

Wednesday, November 11, 10-11:30am (Mountain Time)

Alberto Ríos, Every Sound Is Not a Wolf

Arizona’s inaugural Poet Laureate shares a collection that finds the extraordinary in the everyday, weaving together memory and the borderlands of the Sonoran desert.

Wednesday, December 9, 10-11:30am (Mountain Time)

Carrie Gibson, El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America

Carrie Gibson will discuss her sweeping historical account that chronicles the Hispanic influence on the North American continent from the Spanish arrival to today.

archive

View the rest of the BLFC archive on Vimeo:

2025

• Tim Z. Hernandez, author of “All They Will Call You” (August 13, 2025)

• David Damian & Gale Hall, authors of “El Oz” and “Lili’s Quilt” (July 9, 2025)

• Ken Lamberton, author of “Dry River: Stories of Life, Death, and Redemption on the Santa Cruz” (June 12, 2025)

• Barbara Sostaita, author of “Sanctuary Everywhere” (April 9, 2025)

• Mike Wilson and José Antonio Lucero, authors of “What Side Are You On? A Tohono O'odham Life Across Borders” (February 12, 2025)

• Gary Paul Nabhan, author of “Against the American Grain” (January 8, 2025)

2024

• Melani Martinez, author of “The Molino: A Memoir” (December 11, 2024)

• Sarah Towle, author of “Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands” (October 9, 2024)

• Jared Orsi, author of "Recovering the Lost History and Culture of Quitobaquito" (September 11, 2024)

• Marie Arana, author of “Latinoland: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority” (August 14, 2024)

• Dora Rodriguez, author of “On Migration and Amnesty” (July 10, 2024)

• “Coronado: the New Evidence”, produced by Frances Causey and featuring Dr. Deni Seymour (June 12, 2024)

• Renata Golden, author of “Mountain Time: A Field Guide to Astonishment” (May 8, 2024)

• Héctor Tobar, author of “Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of ‘Latino’” (April 10, 2024)

• John B Washington, author of “The Case for Open Borders” (February 14, 2024)

• Krista Schlyer, author of “Continental Divide: Wildlife, People, and the Border Wall” (January 10, 2024)

2023

• Henry Barajas, “La Voz de M.A.Y.O.: Tato Rambo” (December 13, 2023)

• Alejandra Oliva, “Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration” (November 8, 2023)

• Seth Schermerhorn, Bernard Siquieros, Regina Siquieros, “Pilgrimage to Magdalena” (October 11, 2023)

• Tom Zoellner, “Rim to River: Looking Into the Heart of Arizona” (August 9, 2023)

• Tom Sheridan, “Landscapes of Fraud: Mission Tumacacori, the Baca Float, and the Betrayal of the O’odham” (July 12, 2023)

• Andrew Selee, “Vanishing Frontiers: The Forces Driving Mexico and the United States Together” (June 14, 2023)

• Lydia Otero, “In the Shadow of the Freeway: Growing Up Brown and Queer” (May 10, 2023)

• Luis Alberto Urrea, “The Hummingbird’s Daughter,” “Into the Beautiful North,” and “The Devil’s Highway” (April 12, 2023)

• Gary Paul Nabhan, “The Nature of Desert Nature” (February 8, 2023)

• Greg Grandin, “End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America” (January 11, 2023)

2022

• Bill Steen, “Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonora Borderlands” by Linda Ronstadt with Lawrence Downs (December 14, 2022)

• Reyna Grande and Sonia Guiñansaca, “Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings” (November 9, 2022)

• Jenn Budd, “Against the Wall: My Journey from Border Patrol Agent to Immigrant Rights Activist” (October 12, 2022)

• Dr. Toni Munoz-Hunt discusses the topic of Bordercanos (August 10, 2022)

• Athena Swentzell Steen discusses the topic of Southwest Desert-Adapted Architecture (July 13, 2022)

• Daniel Cooper Alarcon discusses the topic of the history and mythology of Aztlan (June 8, 2022)

• Javier Zamora, “Unaccompanied” and “Solito” (May 11, 2022)

• Scott Buchanan discusses the topic of children’s and youth literature in the borderlands (April 13, 2022)

• Todd Miller, “Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders” (February 9, 2022)

• Wynne Brown, “The Forgotten Botanist: Sara Plummer Lemmon’s Life of Science and Art” (January 12, 2022)

2021

• Jeff Babson, Sky Island Tours (November 11, 2022)

• Roxanne Swentzell and Patricia Perea, “The Pueblo Food Experience Cookbook: Whole Foods of our Ancestors” (October 13, 2021)

• Gary Paul Nabhan, “Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Land and Communities” (September 8, 2021)

• Alberto Rios, “The Good Map of All Things” (July 14, 2021)

• David Owens, “Where the Water Goes” and Craig Childs, “The Secret Knowledge of Water” (June 9, 2021)

• Janya Burn, “Cloak and Jaguar: Following a Cat from Desert to Courtroom” (April 14, 2021)

• Robert C. West, “Sonora: Its Geographical Personality,” Thomas E. Sheridan, “Where the Dove Calls,” Padre Kino documentary, “Favores Celestiales” (March 10, 2021)

• Rita and Francisco Cantu, “The Line Becomes a River” (January 13, 2021)

2020

• Jeffrey Schulze, “Are We Not Foreigners Here? Nationalism in the US-Mexico Borderlands” and film, “Sonora” (November 11, 2020)

• Lawrence Taylor, “Tales from the Desert Borderland” and film, “El Mar La Mar” (October 14, 2020)

• Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie S. Collazo, “The Book of Rosy: A Mother’s Story of Separation at the Border” and film, “Human Flow” (September 9, 2020)

• César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, “Migration to Prison: America’s Obsession with Locking Up Immigrants” (August 12, 2020)

• Film, “Sin Nombre” (July 8, 2020)