Vegan Ventures: Erin McKenna’s Bakery

To highlight the delicious perks of her vegan lifestyle, Daily Bruin staffer Alejandra Reyes-Velarde showcases 10 diverse vegan restaurants in the West Los Angeles area. She will be joined by Daily Bruin staffer William Thorne to bring a meat-eating perspective to vegan cuisine. They will alternate reviewing a restaurant each week. Drake’s photograph sat at […]

JazzReggae Festival returns to its intimate roots for 30th anniversary

Malia Smith and her Uber driver exchanged the usual small talk as the car hurtled east along Sunset Boulevard, away from UCLA. But when her driver mentioned JazzReggae Festival, Smith, a third-year global studies student and the event’s director of marketing, froze at the coincidence. Her driver recounted stories of sitting on the grass of […]

Second Take: James Corden an unexpectedly brilliant choice for ‘The Late Late Show’

Announcing James Corden as the host of “The Late Late Show” in September 2014 was a risky move by CBS. Corden was an unknown actor for the majority of American late night viewers; few people knew him from his work in the U.K., and his appearances on Broadway in “One Man, Two Guvnors” and in […]

Shadow puppetry to depict Persian epic ‘Shahnameh’ at Freud Playhouse

Masked actors wearing elaborate, feathered costumes manipulated puppets behind a large 15-by-30-foot screen, creating dancing shadows and silhouettes that told an ancient story of love and war. Hamid Rahmanian, the director, producer and creator of “Feathers of Fire: A Persian Epic,” previewed his show in early 2016 in San Francisco, before touring at the Brooklyn […]

Love Apptually: Squad game strong even when dating app is not

Each week in “Love Apptually,” Daily Bruin staffers Nico Correia and Natalie Green will take turns attempting to find love in all of the wrong places: dating applications. To help thousands of loveless students, but mostly themselves, Correia and Green will test run and rate five dating apps over the course of one quarter. I […]

Q&A: NSU Modern artistic director talks his final Battle Royale

Hearts beat faster. The music grows louder. The crowd goes wild. This is how a fourth-year English student Jeremy Ortiz, who has been dancing all four years of college, remembers Battle Royale. Each year, UCLA hip-hop dance teams ACA Hip Hop, VSU Modern, Samahang Modern and NSU Modern compete in Battle Royale. The combination of […]

Film with diverse cast depicts plight of undocumented transgender Latinas

Jennifer scours every corner of her cluttered room, but she can’t find her estrogen pills or the money to buy a refill. Her boyfriend doesn’t understand why she resorts to the sex trade to keep her transition going, but as an undocumented transgender Latina woman, she doesn’t have much of a choice. Jennifer is the […]