The Hebrew word Aliyah means “ascent,” but it can also refer to immigrating to Israel. Filmmaker Rebecca Shore directed the short documentary “Mekonen: The Journey of an African Jew” about African-Israeli man Mekonen Abebe to highlight Israel’s diversity. Just one day before Abebe and his family were set to make Aliyah to Israel, his father […]
Category Archives: Arts
UCLA students create database for African-American silent films
Seven digital humanities students found 759 entertainment industry professionals involved in early silent race films and compiled them into a centralized database for the first time. The students, as well as the digital humanities program coordinator Miriam Posner used the information they collected at the Charles E. Young Research Library to create what is now […]
Second Take: ‘SNL’ portrayal of Hillary Clinton opens candidate up to millennials
The events of the 2016 election were so outlandish that they hardly needed satire. However, “Saturday Night Live” still delivered some incisively hilarious election coverage. Larry David frequently appeared on “SNL” as Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. Kate McKinnon acted as both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s long-suffering campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway. Alec Baldwin’s recurring role […]
Art exhibit celebrates history of Boyle Heights neighborhood
Alan Leve counted the bumper stickers for presidential candidates Franklin Roosevelt and Alfred Landon while he was a child growing up in Boyle Heights in the 1930s. He frequently visited a soda shop that served ice cream cones shaped like volcanoes. “It was a warm friendly environment – people cared about each other,” said Leve, […]
Art exhibit aims to showcase Falun Dafa in positive light
Taiwanese television stations in the 1990s broadcasted Falun Dafa persecutions in Tiananmen Square in China, where the meditation practice is shunned. First-grader Joyce Kuo, a practitioner of the meditation, was worried while watching the images on television in her home in Taiwan because she knew her family could receive negative attention. Now a fourth-year history […]
Alum transforms Top Leaf into L Kitchen with artistic, flavorful food
Mia Lin Pan didn’t know how to cook before she came to America. About four years after leaving China to attend UCLA, she opened her first restaurant, L Kitchen, which will have its grand opening in Westwood on Wednesday. Pan said her passion for learning how to cook came from a nostalgia for the flavors […]
Saxophonist Kamasi Washington credits musical success to UCLA roots
Saxophonist Kamasi Washington has played alongside rappers like Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar, but his early education lies in jazz. As a second-year student at UCLA, Washington played saxophone on Snoop Dogg’s tour. After the 2004 ethnomusicology alumnus released his debut album “The Epic” in 2015, he went on to help arrange the string instruments […]