Arts & Culture

Kristie KahnsLuna Negra Dance TheatreJosé Limón (1908-1972) was a pivotal figure in the evolution of modern dance, praised by the New York Times as “the greatest male dancer of his own or any other time.” In November Chicago’s acclaimed Luna Negra Dance Theatre, which is dedicated to the work of Latino choreographers, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Limón’s birth with a concert recreating his iconic There is a Time.

Eric CesalSt. Francis de Sales church, popularly known as “the Cathedral of South St. Louis,” has been a local landmark since the end of the Civil War, listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. This fall five teams of architecture students have worked to create redevelopment plans for an abandoned children’s theater, located on the church’s six-building campus, as part of the Sam Fox School’s Community Service Competition. Winners of the competition will be announced Oct. 17 at a reception in Givens Hall.

Novelist John Brandon, who earned a master of fine arts degree in 2001 from Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, for the Fall Reading Series. Brandon is the author of “Arkansas,” a darkly comic novel about rural drug distribution published last spring […]

Photo by David KilperThough the vice presidential debate may be over, the political fun continues at WUSTL with the Performing Arts Department Production of “Of Thee I Sing,” the classic musical satire of American public life.

Max GreenstreetJean ValentinePoet Jean Valentine, the Visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23. The author of 11 books, Valentine is currently State Poet of New York.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo ServicesBiden vs. Palin vs… Throttlebottom? Though the vice presidential debate may be over, the political fun continues at Washington University later this month with Of Thee I Sing, the classic musical satire of American public life.

Within a month of publishing his notorious collection “Les Fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil),” (1857), the French poet Charles Baudelaire was charged with insulting public decency and ordered to remove six works from subsequent editions. Yet Baudelaire’s poems, which center on themes of eroticism and mortality, would influence generations of writers, from Arthur Rimbaud […]

The phrase “modern art” has been widely used for more than a century. In that time, it has become so associated with historical movements — from cubism and surrealism to abstract expressionism, pop and conceptual art — that it has ceased to describe the many new and different forms being made today. So argues Terry […]

Art historian Terry Smith will discuss “Contemporary Art and the Contemporaneity Question” at Kemper Monday, Oct. 13.

Harold Blumenfeld, professor emeritus in the Department of Music, has recorded “Vers Sataniques (Satanic Verse),” a major new piece that will be featured as part of a mixed media concert Oct. 13.