With Slim Thug Collab, Opera-Trained R&B Diva Lenora Is Ready to ‘Relax’

Steve Visneau
Lenora wears a David Koma jacket from Tootsies and  Deutsch Houston jewelry.

Lenora wears a David Koma jacket from Tootsies and Deutsch Houston jewelry.

On 28-year-old R&B songstress Lenora’s latest single “Relax,” featuring H-Town rapper Slim Thug, the classically trained soprano — who studied opera at Loyola University before deciding to “dig into her roots” — uses her velvety, ASMR-inducing vocals to lull listeners into a hazy, psychedelic slumber. The track, produced by H-Town duo Beanz N Kornbread and released in December, made its debut on Houston mainstream radio during quarantine.


Lenora, who writes all of her own music, recently conceptualized a virtual concert series with her band, The Mile High Club. “Performing virtually has been dope and exciting because it’s very different than what I’m used to,” she says. “And there is so much access and opportunity for people all over the world to experience it. But there is nothing like performing for a live [audience]. I feed off of that energy and it’s intoxicating. I’m looking forward to that again.”

Click here to see the full 2020 portfolio.

Lenora wears a David Koma jacket from Tootsies and Deutsch Houston jewelry. 

Art + Entertainment

A next-gen artificial heart from BiVACOR has successfully been implanted in a patient at Texas Heart Institute. The patient survived more than a week, until a donor heart was found for a transplant.

THE PIONEERING CARDIOVASCULAR inventors and surgeons at The Texas Heart Institute (THI) in the Texas Medical Center have made another huge leap forward in the treatment of heart disease, officially announcing yesterday what they’re calling a “monumental advancement."

Keep Reading Show less
People + Places

Rachel Gardner with her flower necklaces and, at left, Calla Lilly necklace

ON SATURDAY JULY 27, Foltz Gallery presents Endless Summer, a lively, playful exhibit of works by a multi-generational group of 28 emerging and established Texas-based artists. Taking its name from the 1974 Beach Boys double-album, which compiled the group’s early 1960s hit singles, the show is a visual “mixtape” of colorful paintings, prints, photographs, wall-based installations, ceramics and sculptures, installed lovingly throughout Foltz’s spacious and sunlit galleries. Among the works in Endless Summer are several examples of handmade “sculptural jewelry” by artist Rachel Gardner — a series of wearable wildflowers and fruits, including olives and strawberries.

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment