Name: Re-Storying Texas: Beyond The Myth of Red Texas
Start: 2026-06-01T17:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-06-01T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches

Re-Storying Texas: Beyond The Myth of Red Texas

A conversation with David Griscom and Alex Birnel about how telling the unheard stories of Texas can help us move forward.
About this Event

Event Summary

Join the Institute for Diversity and Civic Life (IDCL) on Monday, June 1st from 5-7 pm at Batch for a conversation with David Griscom, author of the newly-published The Myth of Red Texas: Cowboys, Populism, and Class War in the Radical South and Alex Birnel, an organizer and founding member of MOVE Texas, as they discuss how we tell the story of Texas, who’s been left out of those narratives, and how telling a more expansive story of this state can help us forge a path to the future.

Drawing from Griscom’s new book, they will explore the often invisibilized tradition of cowboys, farmers and radicals raising hell against the moneyed interests and the right-wing in Texas, making for a lively and timely conversation as we consider progressive movement-building in the Lone Star State.

The book will be available to purchase on site. To stay updated on events like this, subscribe to the IDCL newsletter here.

Speaker Bios

David Griscom is a writer and political commentator with a focus on working-class politics and history, especially in the South and Texas. His work on Southern labor history can be found in Jacobin. David is also the host of The Jacobin Show and co-host of the podcast Left Reckoning. Formerly a producer on The Michael Brooks Show, he lives in his hometown of Austin, Texas.

Alex Birnel is an organizer who thrives on tackling long odds and building power. A founding member of MOVE Texas, he fought voter suppression, challenged fossil fuel expansion, and contested the Texas Legislature’s grip on power. His campaigns have restored polling places, launched J*il-based voting, and pushed utilities to close coal plants. A co-founder of San Antonio DSA, he’s trained hundreds of young organizers, helped nonprofit workers unionize, and serves as Vice Chair of CEER's Board, an environmental organization based in Houston. He currently supports local elected officials in fighting displacement as a Campaigns Manager for Local Progress. His work has been featured in Jacobin and PBS’s Latino Vote: Dispatches from the Battleground.