Author: Liam Otten

Drawing on ballet and contemporary dance, Arabesque captures the ancient, agrarian rhythms of life in rural Vietnam. On Oct. 24 and 25, the celebrated company, which is based in Ho Chi Minh City, will make its U.S. premiere as part of the Edison Ovations Series.

Tired and hungry and far from home, cast adrift by angry powers, the hero escapes monsters, navigates hostile lands and struggles to reunite with beloved family. In “Anonymous,” Naomi Iizuka pays sly homage to “The Odyssey” of Homer, reimagining a foundational work of Western literature through the lens of contemporary immigration.

Poetry scholar Marjorie Perloff will receive the 2014 International Humanities Medal from Washington University in St. Louis. Granted biennially, the $25,000 award is largest prize from an American institution to cover the broad spectrum of the humanities.

The anti-violence initiative “My Name is Strong” will present its second annual exhibition Friday, Oct. 3, at the Yeyo Arts Collective. The all-media, un-juried show features works by artists who have experienced gender-based violence and by their allies, including friends, family and loved ones.

The Railway Exchange Building in downtown St. Louis is an icon, synonymous with Christmas lights, holiday cheer and civic pride. Yet since being vacated by Macy’s in 2013, the structure has sat largely empty. Now The Partnership for Downtown St. Louis and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts are partnering to explore adaptive reuse strategies for the 21-story high-rise.

Ten cutting-edge Sukkahs by architects and designers from around the nation will be installed Oct. 7-13 on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis. The projects are winners of “Sukkah City STL 2014: Between Absence and Presence,” an ambitious contemporary design competition presented by St. Louis Hillel and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Legal segregation may be over, but segregation is hardly a thing of the past. This fall, the Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will launch “The Divided City: An Urban Humanities Initiative.” The $1.6 million project — funded in part by a four-year, $650,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation — will examine segregation from a variety of perspectives.

In “Reembarque/Reshipment,” Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando examines the lasting influence — on Cuban language, music and culture — of Haitian laborers, brough to work the sugarcane fields and coffee plantations. At 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 13, Rolando will host a free screening in the Danforth University Center. 

In the 1950s and ’60s, Gaslight Square hosted a who’s who of American entertainers — everyone from Lenny Bruce to Miles Davis to Barbra Streisand. On Thursday, Sept. 25, Washington University will pay homage to Gaslight Square with a special Jazz at Holmes concert.

​On Sept. 11 — just one week into the 2014 NFL season — running back Adrian Peterson was indicted on charges of beating his four-year-old son with a tree branch. In the uproar that followed, Peterson was suspended from professional football and pilloried by pundits left and right. Washington University in St. Louis Associate Professor Jeffrey Q. McCune Jr., PhD, who writes about masculinity, performance studies and popular culture, shares his thoughts.