Arts & Culture

Courtesy photoSweet Honey in the RockGrammy Award-winning a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock will launch the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series with a special one-night-only performance at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27. Founded in 1973, the acclaimed all-female group has released more than a dozen albums combining the music of the Civil Rights movement and the African-American church with jazz, rap, reggae, Hip Hop, African chants and contemporary rhythm and blues.

Courtesy photo*The Mystery of Edwin Drood*St. Louis native John Ezell is one of contemporary theater’s most influential scenic designers. Over the last five decades the Washington University alumnus has created hundreds of sets for major regional, national and international companies and festivals. Next month the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ Des Lee Gallery will present Bold Strokes and Finesse: The Stage Designs of John Ezell. The exhibition will include drawings, models, painter elevations and other material surveying the breadth and scope of Ezell’s work.

Despite popular theories to the contrary, early humans evolved not as aggressive hunters, but as prey of many predators. “Humans are no more born to be hunters than to be gardeners,” argues Robert W. Sussman, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, in the newly-updated version of the controversial book “Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators and Human Evolution.”

Elizabeth ArmstrongElizabeth Armstrong, curator of Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury, will discuss the exhibition at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. Armstrong’s talk will explore the motivations, processes and scholarship that went into creating this sprawling multimedia installation, which opens at the museum Sept. 19 and remains on view through Jan. 5, 2009.

Interdisciplinary cooperation is at the heart of the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences’ 2008-09 season, which will explore connections between theater and contemporary cultural and political issues.

Interdisciplinary cooperation is at the heart of the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences’ 2008-09 season, which will explore connections between theater and contemporary cultural and political issues.

David MarchantAsha PremModern solos and structured improvisation will share the stage with classical Indian and contemporary Chinese dance in Dance Close Up, the biennial concert of new and original choreography by dance faculty in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences. Launched in 1995, the biennial concert serves as the unofficial kickoff to St. Louis’ professional dance season. This year’s showcase will feature 11 works choreographed and performed by full-time and adjunct faculty.

Ting-Ting ChangTheater, like film and architecture, is a collaborative art, drawing on the work of actors, writers, directors, designers, dancers, choreographers, musicians and others. That sense of interdisciplinary cooperation is at the heart of the Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences’ 2008-09 season, which will explore connections between theater and contemporary cultural and political issues as well as between the PAD and other campus areas.

Tracy K. SmithFour faculty members from the 2008 Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops will read from their poetry and fiction at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6. Launched in 1976, Callaloo is the premier African-American and African literary journal, publishing a rich mixture of fiction, poetry, plays, critical essays, interviews, and visual art from the African diaspora. The annual Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops — hosted this year by Washington University from Aug. 3 to 16 —are designed to assist new and developing writers by providing intensive and individual instruction in the writing of fiction and poetry.

Tracy K. Smith, authorFour faculty members from the 2008 Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops will read from their poetry and fiction at 7 p.m. Aug. 6 in Duncker Hall, Room 201, Hurst Lounge. The event is free and open to the public.