arTistic Attention: TA Nick Johnson brings passion for stage to playwriting

Taped above Nick Johnson’s desk is the Kurt Vonnegut quote: “When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.” Johnson said this quote embodies what it feels like to face writer’s block, a situation he tries to teach his playwriting students to overcome. Now in his final quarter […]

Film reveals hidden facets of Tibetan culture, language loss

Khashem Gyal speaks the language of an ancient and evolving culture. Like many young Tibetans, Gyal says he understands that speaking his native tongue of Amdo Tibetan has become increasingly rare. Gyal embraces this connection with the past, for it enables him to traverse a contentious gap between young Tibetans and a generation that, in […]

Second Take: ‘Serial’ captivates viewers with engaging storytelling, inconclusive end

“Come on, either you think I did it or you don’t … People come expecting a monster, and when they don’t find that, they come expecting a victim … And the reality of it is, I’m just a normal person.” These are the words of Adnan Syed in the penultimate episode of “Serial,” the highly […]

Alum Michael Soll self-publishes first novel, ‘Scorched’

Between classes, UCLA alumnus Michael Soll navigated the stories that unfolded in his imagination. These thoughts often progressed to the next phases of Soll’s writing processes, into his phone, then to his computer, on which he would write from his dorm room desk.

Book talk to cover poet’s representation of South Los Angeles

On a large white screen, a projector illuminates the faces of two young men. Their expressions inhabit a small square on their USC student IDs. The violent, stereotypical names on the IDs present the image’s inescapable message – the racial ignorance that divides the students. The image of the two student IDs provides a mirror […]