Author: Liam Otten

Poet Thomas Sayers Ellis will read from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8, for the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences. The event, part of the Writing Program’s Fall Reading Series, is free and open to the public and takes place in Duncker Hall, Rm. 201, Hurst Lounge.

Jon SpaihtsGrooveLilyRock band? Musical theatre? Indie-pop trio GrooveLily combines the best of both worlds with Striking 12, a refreshingly alternative holiday show based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale “The Little Match Girl.” The New York Times praises the show as “Thoroughly winning! More artfully crafted and engaging than virtually all the standard-mold musicals these days. Alive with wit and humor.”

Photo by Joe AngelesAcclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin led more than a dozen student, faculty and alumni pianists last Sunday as part of “Piano Extravaganza.” The concert, organized by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, marked the formal opening of the University’s newly renovated 560 Music Center in University City.

Mildred Lane Kemper Art MuseumRoy Lichtenstein,*Crying Girl,* 1963.The blonde has been an iconic and highly influential ideal of feminine beauty in American culture since the mid-20th century. Yet beginning with American Pop Art in the early 1960s, the blonde has also become a touchstone for artistic representation and critical inquiry. In November, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present Beauty and the Blonde: An Exploration of American Art and Popular Culture, the first museum show to investigate the strategic use of the blonde in contemporary art. Organized by Catharina Manchanda, Ph.D., curator of the Kemper Art Museum, the exhibition will survey how artists have interpreted the blonde in a wide range of visual media, from prints, painting and sculpture to collage, film, video, photography and interactive web projects. Also featured will be a selection of advertisements, magazines, cartoons, film posters, album covers, Barbie imagery and other materials — mainly from the 1950s and 60s — that have helped to shape popular notions about the blonde.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo ServicesRosie Mandel as IsabellaOne of Shakespeare’s most confounding “problem plays,” Measure for Measure explores the nature of power, the relationships between men and women and the battle between justice and mercy. In November the Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences will present a two-weekend run of Measure for Measure in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.

Poet Thomas Sayers Ellis will read from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8, for the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences. Ellis, a native of Washington, D.C., is the author of The Maverick Room (2005), a collection exploring the city’s social, geographical and historical neighborhoods. His Breakfast and Blackfist: Notes for Black Poets, is forthcoming from the University of Michigan Press’ Poets on Poetry Series.

Utah’s acclaimed Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company will present “Nikolais Dance Theatre,” an evening-length collection of visionary multimedia works that transform dance into a visual and kinetic art. The show, an homage to innovative dancer Alwin Nikolais, begins at 8 p.m. Nov. 2 and 3 as part of Edison Theatre’s OVATIONS! Series.

Poet and author Susan Wheeler, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from her work Thursday, Oct. 25, and speak on the craft of poetry Tuesday, Oct. 30.

Poet and author Susan Wheeler, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from her work Thursday, Oct. 25, and speak on the craft of poetry Tuesday, Oct. 30. Wheeler is the author of four poetry collections – Bag ‘o’ Diamonds (1993), Smokes (1998), Source Codes (2001) and Ledger (2005) – as well as a novel, Record Palace (2005).

Over the last two decades, digital technology has had a major impact on the production and experience of art. At 6:30 p.m. Oct. 25, Christiane Paul, adjunct curator of new media arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, will discuss digital art and other new forms — including net art, software art, digital installation and virtual reality — for the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.