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Jef Rouner

Jef Rouner

Houston, TX

Jef Rouner (he/she/they) is an award-winning freelance journalist from Houston, Texas. He is also the author of The Rook Circle an Stranger Words, and a former member of The Black Math Experiment.

The Mask Makers of Texas

The Mask Makers of Texas

The mask is a cornerstone of Halloween. Some people wear them to frighten others, enhancing the spooky nature of the season. Others use them as a form of trickery or roleplay, paying homage to the idea that Halloween is a time when the veil between worlds thins. Something about the

New Exhibition Tackles Complicated Emotions Of Pollution And People

New Exhibition Tackles Complicated Emotions Of Pollution And People

Thirty years ago this month, the San Jacinto River caught fire. Storms thrown off Hurricane Rosa in Mexico resulted in heavy rains in Houston, flooding the city and rupturing a 40-inch gasoline pipeline. Fuel poured into the river and quickly caught flame. Waves of fire flowed down the water, destroying

Houston’s River Oaks Theatre: Ready To Show Again

Houston’s River Oaks Theatre: Ready To Show Again

Houston’s oldest movie theater, the River Oaks, opened its doors again for the first time since 2021 on October 3. Under new direction and local ownership by Culinary Khancepts, it’s poised to become the beating heart of film in the city as it was over most of its

Saving The Last Lighthouse In Galveston

Saving The Last Lighthouse In Galveston

The ferry ride to Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston County is the first time in months I’ve stepped out in the daylight and not immediately made a rude gesture at the oppressive sun. The air over Galveston Bay is a good ten degrees cooler than the asphalt oven of Houston,

Ashley Worhol: Dead Bugs, Metal, and Cinema

Ashley Worhol: Dead Bugs, Metal, and Cinema

I needed a wing transplant for my tooth fairy, and that’s how I met Ashley Worhol for the first time in a decade. We were both vending at the night market at the National Museum of Funeral History in Houston this past summer. I was hawking my horror story

The Most Interesting Man In Texas Opens A Haunted B&B

The Most Interesting Man In Texas Opens A Haunted B&B

Walking up the steps to the 134-year-old RavenWolf Manor, I start thinking about Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour. One of the protagonists, Michael Curry, would stare through the fence every day at a New Orleans mansion rumored to be the home of witches. If I had to pick one

Houston’s Hardy & Nance Is The Place For New Artists

Houston’s Hardy & Nance Is The Place For New Artists

It’s the third Saturday of the month at the Hardy & Nance Studios. Nominally, the crowd is here for the Portraits in June show, one of the many themed gallery events that Hardy & Nance host twice monthly. While that part of the gallery certainly draws a crowd thanks