It's certainly surreal to be writing about the latest opening of Meow Wolf's great, groundbreaking immersive experiment in these unprecedented times. My experience there was presciently affected by many things; I had invited my husband's side of the family along for this visit, the first one with our child during her first trip to his hometown of Houston, and we were surprisingly met with apprehension from members who didn't join us (note: due to health, not the exchange I'm prefacing this report with). They warned that the location of Meow Wolf: Radio Tave was near where bodies were washing up from the Bayou and where criminals abounded, and if we were to be harmed...well, you know how older family members can project their clearly well-meaning concerns.
In response, I answered frankly that I was more worried for their grandchild's and my safety in a world where masked criminals are carrying dollar-store badges and harming our communities and felt safer in a space like Meow Wolf where artists are trying to cultivate culture in their neighborhoods—they scoffed at the concept.
This was on New Year's Eve, before the tragic passing of Renee Good, a mother and a good neighbor. Her death made it hard to want to jump back into talking about escapes from reality and entertainment. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to share how, on this visit, I really got to see firsthand how my family of Texas locals discovered and embraced new things with the same pure childlike wonder their granddaughter did.
It was probably the most important visit to Meow Wolf I've been on yet, and I'm an LA native who eagerly awaits the opening of my hometown portal in the hub of where I grew up, dreaming of adventures like the ones my job as a writer has gifted me. Coincidentally, a family visit to Texas back in 2018 spurred my husband and me to make a stop at Meow Wolf: House of Eternal Return on our road trip back to LA on his NYE birthday.
Since then, we have been captivated by the collective of creative initiatives to celebrate artists in the most unexpected of places, and I have extensively followed Meow Wolf's portal expansions in my work as a theme park and immersive reporter for the various sites I have written for, including, most recently, Gizmodo. Now, nearly a decade later, my husband and I were back celebrating his birthday (without the jumpscare of a New Mexico snowstorm) on his home turf of HTX with our loved ones at Meow Wolf: Radio Tave.
Following the footsteps of our excited 16-month-old (why do we count their age in months this far?), our little one was the best way to introduce Meow Wolf to her grandparents and see it in a new light for my husband and me.
We began in a radio station setting, much like the one seen on the final season of Stranger Things. There was even a banner hung that wished Robin "good luck," which made me wonder if that was a meta joke referencing the show's series finale that night, you know, like from one radio station sandwiched between worlds to another. No demogorgons or Vecna here, thankfully. But there was this strange thing:
Hilariously, a random kid there led me to the hallway of doors where we beheld this sculptural specter. I think the teen was surprised at my lack of jumping; maybe it's the numbness to it from years of haunts (reassuring scare actors they're doing great!). But I led the charge in these hallways to another door to another world to another and another, as they welcomed our family into a zone of wonder they maybe had not experienced before, and that was okay; our little girl hadn't either.
So they painted on digital canvases together, in amazed pride at the unique creations from Texan artists and the occasional chuckle at the downright weird. My father-in-law, whose gentle and patient nature most definitely is where my hubs got his from, took it all in to share new kinds of memories with the newest member of the family as she laughed at small doors and tiny creatures.
One of my favorite moments was when my mother-in-law stepped in for him after he'd been selected to carry a fantastical fishlike muppet on a stick during a Phenomenomaly, a seasonal slice of immersive theater with performance art and audience participation. My father-in-law was delighted to watch as my baby girl and her Nonna took the silly muppet scepter and, with my husband, conga-lined through the portals. Somehow through this, I recognized that my husband gets his spontaneous willingness to join in on fun from his mother. I tend to be the mom behind the camera, so I just had a blast capturing these core memories
So no, this visit was not about leaning into the immersive ARG lore and trying to make sense of a story. This visit told another immersive tale of a family venturing into the unknown with one another and learning about what really makes up a place that strives to uplift its people. I saw my husband in a new way; he grew up feeling isolated from like-minded artists before the internet. It was really neat to see that trajectory of being in his favorite room over at the House of Eternal Return back in 2018, the Fleischer cartoon-looking one, because it felt most like the portal to his creative future as a young Texan who loved animation on TV before going out west to pursue film. To come back home with his kid and have a place he might have wanted growing up to share with her was really special.
There was a moment of personal wistful synchronicity when "Midnight Special" was performed live as a part of Phenomenomaly by The Mighty Orq, a hometown singer. It's a traditional blues folksong I first heard when I was in a theater production of Dark of the Moon in college; one of our lead actors would open the show with a performance of it every night. So it was eerie in the way of it feeling like a transmission across time and the multiverse, and it really pulled in the crowd. Many attending were local HTX families looking to do something different with loved ones. Some came dressed in NYE glasses and hats, others in casual wear, but everyone was ready to welcome the new year with the rousing, soulful incantation from the man wearing an open road Stetson and emanating through his steel guitar. What a song to do it with, truly, cause we really need that ever-loving light to shine on us.
A plush glowbug was bestowed upon my child, our freshly printed little light in her first year Earthside. This visit felt like a celebration of being human surrounded by the unknown, experienced with loved ones and strangers ready to lock in together before blasting off into the new year.
Being a So-Cal-born Mexican American, it was really astounding to witness the multi-generational southern Chicano presence (in the exhibit led by Jaime Dimas), which represented the roots of "Hecho en Tejas" with vibrant power that borders can't erase. It holds its place alongside rooms inspired by kitschy Americana charm and the many-eyed monster mirror reflector room. Radio Tave is a transcendent cultural collaboration that permeates the very real parallel universes outside, allowing them to overlap without the lines.
Meow Wolf Houston complements the town's history with space exploration not by being a literal portal to the cosmos but by mapping out a new space with the artistic minds across H-Town in one imagined place where everyone is welcomed, a vision of surreal Southern hospitality that exists and should be experienced.
I'm back home now and already planning our next visit with my sister-in-law and nephew, maybe with a detour to The Real Unreal (the only location I've been delayed twice in visiting). Cowboix Hevven awaits and I'll be damned if I don't go back soon for another round with my batty buddy and more fantastical family memories.
Meow Wolf’s Radio Tave is located in Houston’s 5th Ward. Tickets start at $33 for adults and $19 for children. Tickets are on sale 90 days in advance.
Find Sabina Graves online on Instagram: @LiveLikeTheMovies
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