Watching the world watch Texas.

Issue No. 7, 2025

In this issue of Branding Texas: Texas will supply this year’s 2025 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with a high school band from Hurst TX, a classic ballet soloist from Fort Worth, a country singer from Arlington and an R&B superstar from Austin who has sold millions of albums; the price of a holiday turkey may persuade you to pick cheaper meats for feasting, but an A&M economist from College Station gives the Associated Press the best explanation of how turkey bird prices took flight; preparations at Austin’s main food bank provided a key image during coverage of the national crisis in nutrition aid for the needy.


Thomas Graham

Texans in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade

A grateful nation can be particularly thankful, as we are, for the celebrity Texans on Thanksgiving who will be present and very visible during Macy’s 2025 Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Associated Press reporter Mark Kennedy reports that The L.D. Bell High School Blue Raider Band from Hurst, Texas will march in NYC on Turkey Day morning.  Six flights will carry students and staff from DFW to New York on Monday. On the ground in NYC, six buses will shuttle the group around the city.

Others from the Lone Star on the parade roster will include:

  • R&B singer Ciara –she was born Ciara Princess Harris in Austin TX.
  • Country Singer Mickey Guyton – she was born and raised in Arlington, TX.
  • New York City Ballet principal dancer Roman Mejia –he was born in Fort Worth TX.

Austin’s Ciara has sold more than 23 million albums, 30 million singles, and amassed over 1 billion streams worldwide; delivering anthems that shaped a generation.  She first appeared in the Macy’s parade in 2006, and then again in 2019.  Robyn Mowatt of Essence Magazine has also said Ciara “is an unsung fashion icon that deserves more notoriety.”

When the Arlington-born singer/songwriter Mickey Guyton signed to Capitol Nashville in 2011, she was the only Black woman artist at a major country music label at the time. Recently in 2025, she’s been a Variety magazine covergirl, played in NBA’s All-Star Celebrity Game, and was the first American artist to place as runner-up on China’s competitive music show The Singer.

Roman Mejia, first trained in classical dance in Fort Worth by accomplished professionals: his mother Maria and father Paul.  Roman became an apprentice with New York City Ballet in 2017, and he joined that elite company as a member of the corps de ballet that same year. By 2021, he was promoted to the rank of soloist and then, in 2023, was named a principal dancer.  According to New York Times reporter Gia Kourias: “Mejia is an airborne dancer whose exuberance shines in joyful Balanchine ballets like ‘Stars and Stripes,’ ‘Rubies’ and ‘Western Symphony.’ ”

 

Bird flu driving up the price of turkeys?

On a more serious note, a Texas academic voice is helping America understand the real economics of Thanksgiving dinner.  AP reporter Melissa Goldin has been tracking down the prices of this year’s Thanksgiving feast.

She discovered an analysis from economist Bernt Nelson at the American Farm Bureau Federation claims that wholesale turkey prices are up about 40%, largely because of an outbreak of avian influenza this year.  Nelson grew up on a family farm in North Dakota 160 miles from the Canadian Border.

But that doesn’t mean every bird will be pricier in 2025. Livestock economist David Anderson from Texas A&M noted that because certain retailers, such as Walmart, contract their turkeys well in advance, the price for customers might be much lower than the market currently indicates.

If money’s no object, of course, you might consider heading to a favorite Texas restaurant for your holiday dinner – and turkey’s not the only choice.  In early November, Marlowe Quinn of Decor Hint, a national lifestyle/food blog, featured must-try Texas restaurants for unforgettable Thanksgiving feasts.  At the top of the list: Cattleack BBQ on Gamma Road in Farmer’s Branch TX, near Dallas.

Wrote Quinn: “Cattleack specializes in slow-smoked meats that melt in your mouth, making it a fantastic alternative to traditional turkey dinners. Their brisket has a cult following, and the sides complement the smoky flavors perfectly.”

 

Austin’s Central Texas Food Bank get national attention

Texas was a frontline subject for some media during national coverage of a nation-wide crisis in holiday hunger relief.  Cities and states inside and outside the state have been dashing to cover millions of dollars in a shortfall of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as funds were put into legal limbo by the long Congressional stalemate in DC.

Central Texas Food Bank became the visual symbol for that national conversation about feeding families at Thanksgiving in a story by Reis Thebault and Molly Hennessy-Fiske in the Washington Post. 

The Post story’s lead image and reporting centered on the Central Texas Food Bank’s warehouse kitchen in Austin, showing volunteers weighing squash and potatoes as they braced for holiday demand.  Local volunteers Cassandra Krcmar and Debra Reida were shown weighing squash and potatoes in the vast kitchen on Austin’s Metropolis Drive.

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