The Menil Collection The Menil Collection

Outdoor music selected by Benito Huerta, Tierney Malone, Peter Lucas, and Flash Gordon Parks.

Bring your picnic blankets and join the Menil for outdoor music on the museum’s lawn. The annual Sounds to Live By listening event is organized by independent curator and artist Peter Lucas, and will feature music selections by Lucas, visual artist and curator Benito Huerta, visual artist and jazz champion Tierney Malone, and DJ and music historian Jason Woods aka Flash Gordon Parks. Each will be spinning vinyl records from their personal collections, selected especially for a communal, outdoor experience.

The event takes place on the east lawn of the main museum building, located at 1533 Sul Ross Street. Please bring your own picnic blankets or lawn chairs; seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Further information regarding accessibility and parking can be found here.

As always, Menil programs are free and open to all.

Peter Lucas Peter Lucas is a curator and arts organizer with an interest in exploring the intersections of art forms, disciplines, and ideas. Focused largely on cinema and media arts, he is Curator of the annual Jazz On Film program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and has organized exhibitions, film series’, and public programs in association with the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, The Menil Collection, Aurora Picture Show, Northwest Film Forum, and the Seattle International Film Festival. Lucas is also an active multidisciplinary artist, writer, podcaster, and DJ.

Tierney L. Malone Tierney Malone is a visual artist and storyteller who uses elements of African American history and pop culture to create mixed media works that challenge contemporary culture and politics. Malone has exhibited his art widely, and has works in major collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He has also created album covers, posters, and public murals. Additionally, he is the creator of The Jazz Church of Houston and the host of “Houston Jazz Spotlight” on 90.1 KPFT, both of which recognize and preserve Houston’s tremendous contributions to Jazz.

Benito Huerta Benito Huerta is a renowned visual artist, curator, and educator. Drawing visual influence from a variety of histories and pop culture sources, Huerta’s paintings, drawings, and prints have been exhibited in over 60 solo shows and countless group exhibitions since the late-1970s. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Amon Carter Museum, the Blanton Museum of Art, and the Menil Collection. As long-time Director and Curator of The Gallery at UTA (University of Texas at Arlington), Huerta created a diversity of evocative exhibitions as well as print series’ and publications over 25 years.

DJ Flash Gordon Parks Jason Woods, aka Flash Gordon Parks, is one of Houston’s hardest working DJs as well as an ethnomusicologist focusing on the rich music histories of Houston and surrounding areas. He has maintained several DJ residencies for over a decade, as well as providing the soundtrack for countless cultural events in the city. He has also produced music-related oral histories and documentaries including This Thing We Do: Houston DJ Culture Revealed (2015) and Archie Bell (2019); and has been a speaker at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Blaffer Art Museum, Rice University, and Art League Houston.