Family tales inspire alumna’s musical about white-passing, cultural identity

Angelica Chéri grew up listening to family stories about her great-great-aunts Mary and Martha Clarke – two white-passing African-American women rumored to have been outlaws in post-emancipation Texas. Drawing on different threads of the family legend, Chéri, an alumna, wrote the script and lyrics for “Gun & Powder,” which will be one of eight featured […]

Alumna’s performance art exhibition highlights works of Victor Hugo

“An unspeakable ceiling of shadows; a depth of obscurity that no diver can fathom; a light mingled with the obscurity, a strange somber vanquished light; brightness reduced to powder.” Victor Hugo’s words, found in his work “The Toilers of the Sea,” inspired alumna Darcie Crager to create “Ceiling of Shadows (La voûte des ombres): A […]

Photography exhibit to showcase connections between Israeli and Palestinian women

This post was updated Oct. 25 at 10:42 a.m. Over 100 Israeli and Palestinian women looked directly into one another’s eyes for the first time in their lives during Saskia Keeley’s workshops. Keeley began hosting summer photography workshops for Israeli and Palestinian women in 2016 through a partnership with Roots, an Israeli-Palestinian initiative in the […]

Theater review: ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ impresses with versatile cast and emotionally powerful messages

The national tour of “Dear Evan Hansen” should come with a warning: Bring a box of tissues. The tearjerker follows a high school senior’s struggle with anxiety and suicide. After Evan Hansen’s (Ben Levi Ross) letter to himself ends up in the hands of a school bully, Connor Murphy (Marrick Smith), the letter is mistaken […]

Fowler exhibit to spotlight Swahili coast’s culture and global significance

Objects that have never left Kenya before are now traveling America. “World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean” is an exhibition opening Sunday and on display until Feb. 10 at the Fowler Museum. It brings together art and artifacts from East Africa, exploring ideas of location and trade through cultural connectivity, said […]

Alumni explore experiences of Holocaust survivors postwar in ‘A Splintered Soul’

Morality in times of survival is questioned as Holocaust survivors attempt to move on in “A Splintered Soul.” The play, premiering at the International City Theatre on Friday, follows a group of Polish Holocaust survivors as they attempt to cope with their traumatic experiences while assimilating into American culture. The survivors merge with the American […]

MFA student exhibition merges STEM, art to explore consciousness through senses

“Convolution” explores consciousness through light, sound and the scent of a kombucha scoby. Hosted by UCLA Design Media Arts, the “Convolution” exhibition will feature the works of 11 2019 MFA candidates at the New Wight Gallery in UCLA’s Broad Art Center. The fall preview show, a precursor to the spring thesis show, bridges the gap […]