Arts & Culture

Paul VertucioShapiro & Smith DanceAs young dancers in the mid-1980s, Danial Shapiro and Joanie Smith frequently spent their evenings with Smith’s sister, the violinist Soozie Tyrell, and her best friend, a young singer-songwriter named Patty Scialfa. In the years since, Shapiro and Smith emerged as internationally renowned choreographers, praised by The New York Times for their “strong, sharp edged dancing and daring theatricality.” Meanwhile, Tyrell and Scialfa would both go on to perform as members of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. More recently, the quartet reunited to create Anytown: Stories of America, a dance theater piece based on Springsteen’s songs. In November, the show will make its St. Louis premiere at Washington University’s Edison Theatre.

It’s election season once again, but the political fun continues even after votes are cast. On Thursday, Nov. 9, the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will host “Playwrights and Politics: Two Acts on the National and International Scene.” The symposium will examine the nature of political theatre and the impact of the arts on national and international politics.

bell hooks, the ground-breaking feminist author, teacher, social activist and cultural critic, will give the Black Arts & Sciences Lecture for the Assembly Series at 11 a.m., Wednesday, November 1 in Graham Chapel. The lecture, “Self-Determination: Where Do We Begin?” is free and open to the public.

Set in pre-revolutionary Russia, the play tells the story of Tevye, a hardworking milkman who must find suitable husbands for his three eldest daughters.

Hamilton, one of the most challenging and provocative installation artists working today, is a 1993 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, popularly nicknamed the “genius grant.”

Sculptor transforms mundane consumer products into playful yet meticulously crafted artworks.

Speakers will include William H. Gass, Richard “Red” Watson, Margarita Boyers and Robert Boyers.

The Department of English in Arts & Sciences will host a memorial reading in honor of Charles Newman, an acclaimed writer and longtime faculty member, who passed away last March at the age of 67. Speakers will include William H. Gass, Richard “Red” Watson, Margarita Boyers and Robert Boyers.

First art museum west of Mississippi River to open new facilities Oct. 25 by Fumihiko Maki, architect of Tower 4 at World Trade Center site

The fourth week of October will feature an actor, a graphic novelist, and a mathematician.