With its poodle skirts, bouffant hairdos and withering irony, John Waters’ original movie Hairspray feels timeless. Beginning at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, and continuing for three consecutive weekends, the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences presents a stage adaptation of this rollicking story set in the early 1960s with Hairspray: The Musical.

Through the Social Change Grant program, students are encouraged to use creativity and knowledge to find solutions to world problems. The many projects — from water purification in Uganda to family planning in India — will be highlighted during a showcase at the Danforth University Center tomorrow, Oct. 12.

Interest in social entrepreneurship — using innovation and enterprise to address social problems — has exploded, but training has always been from a business perspective. This fall, the Brown School is home to the first social entrepreneurship program based in a social work setting.

Nationally acclaimed poet Lucie Brock-Broido will present a talk on the craft of poetry at 6 p.m. tonight for the Writing Program Reading Series. Brock-Broido’s work often explores obsessions and anxieties — of influence, ritual, mortality and modernity — using shifting syntax and diction to create vivid, and sometimes disorienting, portraits of mind.  

Cancer can be deadly, but it actually kills higher percentages of African-American men and women than other racial and ethnic groups. A podcast with Bettina Drake, PhD,  highlights researchers at the School of Medicine and the Siteman Cancer Center who are trying to learn why those disparities exist and what to do about them.

Noon, Tuesday, Oct. 11

Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Seminar Series

“What’s Wrong With Grandma? Depictions of Dementia in Children’s Storybooks.” Erin Sakai, A&S graduate teaching asst. in clinical psychology, and Brian Carpenter, assoc. prof. of psychology. Free and open to the public. BJH South Bldg., 1st fl., East Pavilion Aud. (314) 286-2882.

Take a guided arbor tour of the Danforth Campus

Kent Theiling Jr., grounds and landscape design manager for the Danforth Campus, will lead a Fall Arbor Tour Wednesday, Oct. 19. The tour will start at 11 a.m. in front of Brookings Hall and should last approximately one hour. To reserve a spot, email Kim Shilling at KShilling@wustl.edu.

John Clohisy, MD

Orthopedic surgeon improves quality of life for hip, knee patients. FULL STORY

Volleyball sets NCAA Div. III record

The No. 2 volleyball team set a Div. III record for consecutive set victories in a 3-0 win over Lindenwood University at the Washington University Invitational Oct. 8. The Bears also picked up a 3-0 win over Culver-Stockton College to improve to 21-0 overall and a perfect 63-0 in sets. The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh established the previous record of 57 straight sets in 2007.