Washington University to host 2009 Callaloo Conference March 25-28
Have African-American intellectuals abandoned the Civil Rights Movement? Do black academics need to reengage the larger community, and if so, how? What is the relationship between contemporary politics and popular culture? Some of the nation’s most prominent African-American writers and thinkers will address these questions and more during the 2009 Callaloo Conference, which takes place March 25-28 at Washington University in St. Louis.
Love, blindness and Beatles
Two years ago, Washington University alumna Elizabeth Birkenmeier (LA ’08), then a junior, relished her role as a rash, young Queen Elizabeth in the historical drama “Highness,” winner of WUSTL’s 2006 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition, held annually in the Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences. Now Birkenmeier has returned to campus, but this time as a playwright who will witness the world premiere of her own winning production—”Candlestick Park”—at the end of this month.
Cracking Wise
Acclaimed dancer and choreographer Claire Porter will present an informal dance concert titled Namely, Muscles at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 20, in the Annelise Mertz Dance Studio. The hour-long, one-woman show features Porter as Dr. Nickie Nom, a “forensic orthopedic autopsy muscular anatomical specialist” whose poetry enacts all the major muscles of the body — and then some.
“Virginal, Viols, and Voice”
Pianist and harpsichordist Charles Metz, Ph.D., will perform an intimate program for the Washington University Department of Music in Arts & Sciences at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 22, as part of its spring 2009 concert series. The concert — which will take place at the 560 Music Center in University City — will feature 16th-century English and 17th-century Italian music performed on the virginal, a smaller, rectangular version of the harpsichord.
Washington University Opera to present Dominick Argento’s “The Aspern Papers” March 20-21
The Washington University Opera, led by director Jolly Stewart, will present Dominick Argento’s “The Aspern Papers” at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 20 and 21. Written in 1987 and based on the Henry James novella published nearly a century earlier, the production is presented by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences and will be performed in the university’s Edison Theatre, located in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd.
Fiction writer Lydia Davis to speak for Writing Program Reading Series
Fiction writer Kate Bernheimer will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, in Duncker Hall, Room 201, Hurst Lounge for the Writing Program Reading Series.
African Film Festival at Washington University March 26-29
The annual Washington University African Film Festival will be held March 26-29. The event will feature films that emphasize movement and migration and their impact on African’s shifting identities. All screenings are free and open to the public and begin at 7 p.m. each evening in Brown Hall, Room 100. A postshow discussion and reception will follow Saturday’s films.
Kenyan performance group Haba na Haba to visit WUSTL March 13-22
The Performing Arts Department and the African & African American Studies Program, both in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, will host a residency March 13-22 for a nine-member touring ensemble of internationally known Kenyan performance group Haba na Haba. Group members perform acrobatics, music, dance and drama to educate their communities on topics such as HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, reproductive health, women’s issues and violence. The residency will culminate March 20 with a performance, titled “Co-existence,” based on the recent ethnic conflicts in Kenya following disputed elections. The event, free and open to the public, takes place at 8 p.m. in the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., in University City.
Fiction writer Lydia Davis to speak for Writing Program Reading Series March 17 and 19
Davis
Fiction writer Lydia Davis, the Fannie Hurst Visiting Professor in Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will present a craft talk, titled “A Beloved Duck Gets Cooked: Writing Outside the Mainstream,” and a reading from her work at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 17, and Thursday, March 19, respectively, in Hurst Lounge, Room 201, Duncker Hall on Washington University’s Danforth Campus.
Franklin “Buzz” Spector named dean of art in Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
SpectorFranklin “Buzz” Spector, professor and former chair of the Department of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., has been named dean of the College and Graduate School of Art, both part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Spector also will hold the Jane Reuter Hitzeman and Herbert F. Hitzeman, Jr. Professorship of Art. The appointment, effective July 1, was announced by Carmon Colangelo, dean of the Sam Fox School and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts.
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