An evening of music performed by Gallup Middle School students filled the Kenneth Holloway Auditorium Dec. 19, marking their annual winter concert.

The concert started at 6 pm and was opened to the public.

Newcomer Liam Murphy, band director at Gallup Middle School and Miyamura High School, experienced his first Gallup Middle School winter concert this season, where he led two performances by the beginning and advanced bands.

Murphy said he started in the beginning of October as the band director of both schools. He said it takes a full semester to prepare a concert, ideally.

“It took us 10 weeks to prepare this time,” Murphy said.

The band director instructs roughly 100 to...

It’s a return to a familiar place for Braden Homan, who spent his eighth grade year at Rehoboth Christian School in a summer soccer program.

Now, nearly 10 years later, Homan is Camille Sidewalk Cafe’s “Teacher of the Month” at the same high school where he played soccer in his youth.

Rehoboth Christian School was originally founded as Rehoboth Mission School in 1903, and serves students from pre-K to grade 12.

For Homan, teaching runs in the family. Originally from Denver, Colo., his father was on faculty at Denver Christian High School in Lakewood.

Homan teaches chemistry to his junior year students, along with physics and pre-calculus.

“Chemistry for me is the most...

SpeckFest hits nine years in Gallup’s heavy metal scene

They say that music makes the world go ‘round. That was definitely true on Dec. 8 - 9 in Gallup. The cold nip in the air couldn’t stop music lovers and metal heads from enjoying different concerts around the area on those weekend nights.

ArtsCrawl was in full swing, with local bands rocking the crowd. Negative Zero performed, and acoustic performances also took place along Aztec Avenue from different artists.

The Gallup Downtown Conference Center had a rap show going on, featuring Razakel and the Slice Girls, Omega Sin, Don Orias, Thommy Nekro, Flipsyde, and special guests Ill Nickel, Bizirk, and Earn1.

One concert...

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – – On Dec. 11, the Health, Education, and Human Services Committee voted in support of Legislation No. 0475-17, which seeks approval of supplemental funding from the Unreserved, Undesignated Fund Balance in the amount of nearly $1.5 million, which would provide exclusive dormitory space for Navajo students on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque.

The legislation states that $1.5 million would be allocated to the Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President, which would execute the contract with UNM. The Navajo student residence hall would reflect cultural and historical values of the Navajo Nation, and would be located in the Lobo...