Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • D1

Austin Americcin-Slalesman Sunday, October 29, 2017 austin360simi7iv XTDAMEI 9. Dl 1771 EC Contact: featuresstatesman.com; 512-445-3690 IN TRAVEL TAKE A TOUR OF SCOTLAND, D12 Subscribe: statesman.comsubscribe PROFILE Hook 'Em dances during the Texas Tip-Off scrimmage Oct. 18 inside Gregory Gym. ana ramirezamerican-statesman Big horns to fill UT's Hook 'Em mascot brings fun, spirit and stellar dance moves. By Kristin Finan kfinanstatesman.com He's starred in a music video with Brad Paisley, shared the stage with Major Lazer at the Austin City Limits Music Festival and repeatedly gone viral thanks to his slick dance moves.

But even though he's one of Austin's most recognized celebrities, many people still can't get his name right. "His name is Hook 'Em, not Bevo. They're two distinct char acters," said Charles W. Branch, Texas Athletics senior marketing coordinator for fan engagement and Hook 'Em's coach. "We're so fortunate at the University of Texas that we have two iconic mascots.

We have the rich history tradition of Bevo, and we have Hook 'Em, who is able to do things that Bevo cannot do." Hook 'Em was created in the late 1970s to offer another mascot experience in addition to Bevo, who, as a real, live longhorn, is limited in terms of fan interaction. In the early days, Hook 'Em wore a sweatsuit, gloves and a long-horn headpiece. Since then, particularly in the past three or four Horns continued on D8 UT mascot Hook 'Em pretends to propose to high school senior Grace Andres on Oct. 6 during the 2017 Austin City Limits Festival in Zilker Park, erika rich for American-statesman 'Hook 'Em has the moves. He's quite talented with his dancing Texas pom captain Sara Arnold TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL Locke's new book series is, in part, a love letter to black Texans' ATTICA LOCKEATTHE TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL Attica Locke is a featured author at the festival gala on Friday at the Four Seasons hotel.

She's speaking at 3:30 p.m. Saturday on a panel with author Adam Sternbergh Towns, Simmering Tensions and Modern Western Crime" at First United Methodist Church. which sells $4.99 barbecue pork sandwiches and the "best fried pies in Shelby County." And the Sweet family plays a key role in the novel's plot. Locke, who made her first literary splash with 2009's "Black Water Rising," featuring lawyer Jay Porter, says she wants to kick off a new series with "Bluebird, Bluebird" because "it just came to me that I wanted to do a series about Highway 59." And why did that come to her? "I wanted to do a series that was a love letter to black Texans," she says. "So race is certainly a part of it, something I didn't shy away from at all." Discussions of race also come naturally to Locke, she says, and Locke continued on D10 "The entire book was written before the election," she says, "but you could already see what was coming.

You could already see because of the fact that Trump was even the nominee, the fact that he could speak to crowds of people in this dog-whistle coded language. He was always like that, frankly, during the Obama presidency itself. There were always suggestions that race was at play." Race is also at play throughout "Bluebird, Bluebird," although it's highly entertaining rather than didactic. The case that Mathews is working on: the seemingly connected deaths of a white woman and a black man, in a small town where white supremacists aren't all that underground. Much of the action takes place in or near Geneva Sweet's Sweets, By Charles Ealy Special to the American-Statesman Attica Locke, who grew up in Houston and worked for three seasons as a writer for TV's "Empire," has a great new book series beginning, focusing on a black Texas Ranger, Darren Mathews, who works along Highway 59 in East Texas.

It's called "Bluebird, Bluebird," and Locke will talk about it and other matters as a speaker at Friday's First Edition Literary Gala, which kicks off the Texas Book Festival. She'll join fellow festival authors Walter Isaacson, Min Jin Lee and Kevin Young. Locke will have plenty to talk about, because her flawed but heroic Ranger has a world-weary outlook. You get the idea early on, Attica Locke pursued a career in film directing and screenwriting before writing her first book Of fiction. CONTRIBUTED BY JENNY when Mathews tells the reader: "In the wake of Obama, America had told on itself." And Locke says she wrote that before the election of Donald Trump as president.

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