Alum’s podcast ‘Digits’ explores relationship between humans, numbers

This post was updated on April 2 at 2:10 p.m. James Simenc spends a lot of time in his car, which helped inspire his new podcast. While driving, Simenc often listened to a variety of podcasts that varied in genre and format, helping to familiarize him with the medium and motivating him to explore it […]

Piercings nose their way into mainstream fashion as a form of self-expression

Valeria Morales entered a shop on the Venice boardwalk to get her septum pierced and thought, “Why not?” The first-year statistics student already had 10 piercings, including two cartilage piercings and a belly button piercing. Two of Morales’ friends had just gotten their septa pierced and she liked how it looked, she said. Worried she […]

Students to tell stories of incarcerated people via modernized ‘The Wiz’

Hip-hop theater performance “What It Iz!” is like a modern-day version of Shakespeare for Ayanna McKnight. “Spoken word and poetry, in and of itself, go together,” said the third-year theater student. “It’s just a very artistic way to deal with something so serious.” “What It Iz!”, presented by the UCLA department of African-American studies, opens […]

UCLA student reconnects with heritage as first Japanese Miss Asia USA

Juri Watanabe uses 12 different products on her face when preparing for a pageant – and that’s before she starts putting on makeup. Watanabe, a third-year international development studies student, was the first Japanese delegate to win the Miss Asia USA pageant in November 2016. It was Watanabe’s first pageant and she said it has […]

ISG culture show presents traditions, heritage of diverse community

Belly dancers rehearsed to the beat of traditional Arab doumbek drums in Freud Playhouse. This year’s iteration of the Iranian Student Group’s annual culture show Friday and Saturday will showcase such traditional and modern Iranian dances, along with singing and comedy skits displaying customs reaching as far back as A.D. 1100. The show brings together […]

‘Paradise Lost: Reclaiming Destiny’ to open Friday, starring UCLA alumna

Marguerite French is 5 feet 5 inches tall and of slender build. Yet she played a large, intimidating man and murderer in a gender-reversed production of the “The Revenger’s Tragedy.” French changed the way she walked so that she would appear bigger, and she spoke in a deeper, more confident voice to create the persona […]

UCLA TFT showcases strength of women in production of ‘Helen’

Ashley Cleveland stepped slowly onto a dark stage. Her veil swirled around her as she walked, and a recording of Richard Burton saying, “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?” played in the background. Finally she paused and removed her veil, allowing the audience to see her face for the first time. Cleveland, […]