USC Visions & Voices 2016-2017

2016–2017

UNIVERSIT Y OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

A Message from Michael Quick Dear Friend of USC, I am pleased to announce the 2016–2017 season of USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Created by President C. L. Max Nikias eleven years ago, this annual series of performances, lectures, exhibitions, and discussions has become a centerpiece of campus life and a hallmark of a USC education.

USC’s utmost responsibility is to serve the global public good. Our students and faculty answer this calling by bringing a wide array of perspectives to solve the most difficult problems of our time. And the arts and humanities play a critical role. They shape our understanding of the human condition, give expression to the full range and diversity of human experiences, and, as a result, are integral to addressing the wicked problems faced by people all over the world. Just as USC’s commitment to the arts and humanities permeates our curriculum, you will find that Visions and Voices extends that commitment beyond the classroom, providing abundant opportunities for students in any major to engage, reflect, and design a better world. Trojans have a distinct opportunity here—one that cannot be found with such scope, scale, or depth at any other major university. Take advantage of this enormous privilege.

This year’s signature events feature a diverse array of performances and speakers. In September, jazz saxophonist, arranger, and band leader Kamasi Washington will perform with his band. Washington is breathing new life into jazz, lending his talents to artists like Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Gerald Wilson, and Raphael Saadiq. Following his performance, Washington will engage in discussion with students.

In October, I am proud to kick off the new Provost’s Series on Wicked Problems with an inaugural event on homelessness. Dr. James O’Connell, recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism and author of Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor, will explore stories of struggle, survival, hope, and humanity.

In February, a dance performance entitled Some of a Thousand Words, featuring Wendy Whelan and Brian Brooks, will illuminate the intimate relationship between music and dance. Whelan, one of the world’s leading dancers, and choreographer/director Brooks will perform their tour-de-force duet First Fall along with luminous new work they have created with string quartet Brooklyn Rider, whom the Los Angeles Times calls “one of the wonders of contemporary music.” Their stunning performance bears testament to Whelan and Brooks’ friendship and effervescent artistic chemistry.

These are just a few of our many outstanding Visions and Voices offerings. Please read through this brochure and consider attending the events that spark your interest as well as those that will expose you to ideas, genres, or cultures you’ve never before explored. I plan to attend several Visions and Voices events this year, and I encourage you to do the same.

Sincerely,

Michael Quick Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

CONTENTS

2 About Visions and Voices 3 Events

3 SPARK! 11th Annual Visions and Voices Multimedia Kickoff

4 Making Visual History

6 USC Thornton Symphony: Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4

7 Rebeca Lane: Somos Guerreras

8 R.F. Georgy: Notes from the Café

9 The Medical Humanities, Arts, and Ethics Series

10 Kamasi Washington in Concert and Conversation

11 Trevor Paglen: Hidden Infrastructures

12 Focus Forsythe: The Choreographer’s Process

13 An Evening with Suzan-Lori Parks

14 Movements, Or What Sound Does the Earth Make?

14 500 Years of Utopia

15 DarkMatter: #ItGetsBitter

16 The Provost’s Series on Wicked Problems

18 The Comedy Festival, Vol. 3

19 The Trans/Gender Tipping Point?

20 Forbidden Questions about Islam

20 The Metropolitan Opera in HD

21 USC Thornton Opera Presents Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar 22 WHAT MOVES YOU: Lil Buck and Ashley Bathgate

23 Forging “The Knife”—Kurt Weill Before Broadway 24 Hopscotch: Taking Opera to the Streets 25 I’m Still Here, Still: A Performance by Alexandra Billings

26 Building Blocks of the Future: The Minecraft Experience @ USC

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26 Byzantium 2.0: Acoustic Time Travel

27 A Tribute to Ridley Scott 28 Some of a Thousand Words: Wendy Whelan, Brian Brooks, and Brooklyn Rider 29 sSISTERSs

30 Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca: Antigona

31 Griot! African and European Improvisations

32 Sound Art with Paul Dresher

33 A Curiously Moving Talk with Dana Caspersen

33 Uncanny Valleys: Thinking and Feeling in the Age of Synthetic Humans

34 Anarchy in Asian America: Sex, Punk, and Transgressive Cinema

35 Darkness in the Archives: Queer Opacity as Resistance 35 China Trace: The Export of Chinese Ceramics in the Global Market

36 Latent Memory: Present Visions of Latin American Political Past

37 Doctors’ Orders for a Good Death: Caitlin Doughty and Lindsey Fitzharris

37 Los Angeles, City of Tomorrow 38 The Hotel Play

38 Lost City: Songs from a Changing Sea

39 An Evening with Visual Artist Shirin Neshat

40 Rhythms + Visions / Expanded + Live 3

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Experience L.A.: Events around Los Angeles At a Glance: Events by Date Important Information Contact Information Visions and Voices: Who We Are

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About Visions and Voices

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Photo: Stephanie Diani

Highlighting the university’s commitment to interdisciplinary approaches, the initiative features a spectacular array of events conceived and organized by faculty and schools throughout the university. Every Visions and Voices event includes an interactive or reflective component, providing students and the community with a stimulating experience and an opportunity to explore USC’s core values, including freedom of inquiry, respect for diversity, commitment to service, entrepreneurial spirit, informed risk taking, ethical conduct, and the search for truth. This approach to the arts and humanities is intended to help USC’s students become engaged world citizens, making every future scientist a better scientist, every future lawyer a better lawyer, every future business professional a better business professional, and every future artist a better artist, contributing to a better society as a whole.

Photo: Ahrum Hong

Shirin Neshat, Rebellious Silence, 1994, Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery

Visions and Voices is USC’s dynamic and unparalleled arts and humanities initiative.

Announced by President C. L. Max Nikias in 2005 upon his installation as provost and launched in 2006, Visions and Voices was created to enrich the academic experience of USC students through a deep engagement in the arts and humanities. President Nikias has said that “the arts and humanities are our teachers . . . they illumine our way.” The Visions and Voices initiative encourages USC students to expand their perspectives and discover the transformative power of the arts and humanities in our lives.

Photo (Johnson): Steve Cohn Photo (Siagatonu): Christian Amonson

SPARK! 11TH ANNUAL VISIONS AND VOICES MULTIMEDIA KICKOFF Thursday, August 18, 6 p.m.

Pre-show DJ set at 5:15 p.m.

Bovard Auditorium Kick off the season with our annual arts extravaganza featuring music, theatre, dance, and spoken word. Come early for an energizing pre-show featuring DJs Urban Assault (aka Faust and Shortee). Hilariously outlandish performer Kristina Wong will make you laugh while you rethink race in today’s world, and spokenword artists Javon Johnson and Terisa Siagatonu will move you with their socially engaged lyricism. The vibrant dancers of Versa-Style will wow you with hip hop, Afro-Cuban, and Afro-Latin dance, and you’ll hear the beautiful melodies of singer-songwriter Shannon Lay. The post-show reception promises a mindblowing performance by the internationally renowned El Vez—a cross-cultural caped crusader who blends Elvis with the Chicano experience.

visionsandvoices.usc.edu Photo: Tom Fowler

Photo: George Simian

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Making Visual History This series of events explores the intersection of the arts and humanities and the fascinating work of making history visible on screen.

The World According to Frederick Wiseman: Beyond Documentary, Into History Friday, August 26, 2 p.m.

The Ray Stark Family Theatre, School of Cinematic Arts 108

Photo: Erik Madigan Heck

Join Frederick Wiseman, the master documentarian of our time, for a conversation with USC professors Michael Renov and Vanessa Schwartz. Wiseman is the celebrated director of numerous documentaries, including Titicut Follies (1967) and National Gallery (2014).

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National Gallery A Screening and Conversation with Frederick Wiseman Friday, August 26, 6 p.m.

The Ray Stark Family Theatre, School of Cinematic Arts 108 Frederick Wiseman will screen and discuss his three-hour tour de force National Gallery (2014), which looks behind the scenes and on the walls of one of the world’s greatest collections of paintings.

VISIONS AND VOICES

Tom Kalin: Fictionalizing History and Reinterpreting the Past Thursday, November 10, 7 p.m.

The Ray Stark Family Theatre, School of Cinematic Arts 108 A key figure of New Queer Cinema, Tom Kalin will present clips of his critically acclaimed films about some of the most shocking crimes of the twentieth century, including Swoon (1992) and Savage Grace (2007). In conversation with USC professor Howard A. Rodman, Kalin will reflect on the challenges of making period films about murder, sex, and queer history.

Amanda Vickery: From the Classroom to the BBC Monday, April 3, 7 p.m.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library 240 In an engaging lecture interweaved with clips of her work, Amanda Vickery will discuss how the demands of the medium structure the delivery of history on television. Vickery is a professor of early modern history at Queen Mary University of London.

Organized by Vanessa Schwartz (History, Art History, and Visual Studies Research Institute), Daniela Bleichmar (Art History and History), Akira Lippit (Cinematic Arts, Comparative Literature, and East Asian Languages and Cultures), and Michael Renov (Cinematic Arts). Co-sponsored by the Visual Studies Research Institute, Mellon Sawyer Seminar, and USC School of Cinematic Arts.

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Fate and Freedom: USC Thornton Symphony Presents Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor CARL ST.CLAIR, CONDUCTOR Friday, September 9, 7:30 p.m.

Bovard Auditorium Encounter one of the most unique sagas in symphonic music as conductor Carl St.Clair leads the USC Thornton Symphony in a theatrical and musical performance revealing the rich layers of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36. Tchaikovsky regarded his Fourth Symphony as an “imitation of the basic idea of Beethoven’s Fifth,” specifically the tension between fate and freedom. The symphony was written at a time when Tchaikovsky struggled with health issues, a failed marriage, blackmail, his brother’s criminal activities, money problems, closeted homosexuality, and vicious rumors. He dedicated the symphony to his patron, Nadezhda von Meck, and wrote a program explaining the composition to her. In this illuminating performance, actors will play Tchaikovsky and von Meck, quoting from correspondence and the composer’s explanatory program while his music, performed by the USC Thornton Symphony, unfolds in four mesmerizing movements.

Organized by the USC Thornton School of Music.

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Somos Guerreras: Feminism, Hip Hop, and Guatemala An Evening with Rebeca Lane A VISIONS AND VOICES SIGNATURE EVENT Tuesday, September 13, 7:30 p.m.

Bovard Auditorium Hear one of the fiercest voices of Latin American hip hop in an invigorating evening of music and conversation. Activist, poet, rapper, sociologist, and hip hop educator Rebeca Lane was born in Guatemala City in 1984 and grew up during the final stages and difficult aftermath of her country’s civil war. Today, Lane performs around the world—and she agitates for justice wherever she goes. Set to reggae, dancehall, cumbia, hip hop, and R&B rhythms, Lane’s lyrics powerfully address womanhood, imposed heterosexuality, colonization, and much more.

Lane is the founder of Somos Guerreras, a movement to create a less sexist hip hop culture.

Related Event: Artivism: Creating Socially Engaged Art with Rebeca Lane Thursday, September 15, 6 p.m.

El Centro Chicano, Student Union 402

Photo: Cynthia Vance

In an interactive workshop, Rebeca Lane will offer inspiration and practical tips for making art that makes a difference.

Co-sponsored by the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research and El Centro Chicano.

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“

Notes from the Café is an extraordinary piece of literature that dissects us in such a way as to force us to reflect (something we no longer do) on what we have become in the digital age.

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—Arthur Russell, Le Monde

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Notes from the Café An Evening with R.F. Georgy A VISIONS AND VOICES SIGNATURE EVENT Wednesday, September 14, 7 p.m.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library 240 Egyptian-American author R.F. Georgy’s Notes from the Café was selected by USC President C. L. Max Nikias as recommended summer reading for USC students. In a probing and lively dialogue, Georgy and USC cinematic arts professor Tara McPherson will critically reflect on the information age we are living through. Dostoevsky published the first existentialist novel, Notes from Underground, in 1864. A century and a half later, Georgy offers up a new underground man, the Café Dweller, a neo-Luddite whose view of the digital age is chilling.

In addition to Notes from the Café, Georgy is the author of Absolution: A Palestinian Israeli Love Story and The Unbearable Density of Being.

The Medical Humanities, Arts, and Ethics Series Two Men Talking Monday, September 19, 4 p.m.

Mayer Auditorium, Health Sciences Campus Photo: Judy Schiller

Created by Academy Award–nominated filmmaker Murray Nossel and psychiatrist Paul Browde, Two Men Talking looks at HIV/AIDS, homophobia, racism, and identity. Nossel and Browde, who met as “white, Jewish, gay, and privileged [children] under apartheid” in South Africa, have spent decades mining their past for stories.

Blending elements of theatre, therapy, and real life, the captivating event illuminates how every interaction is a co-creation, and how our stories connect us all.

When We Have to Talk About Something Less Pleasant: Aging, Alzheimer’s, and the End of Life A Lecture by Roz Chast Thursday, March 30, 4 p.m.

Mayer Auditorium, Health Sciences Campus

Photo: Bill Franzen

Cartoonist Roz Chast will share her story of coping with the loss of her parents and the everyday realities of Alzheimer’s disease—a story she tells with courageous honesty in the graphic memoir Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant? Chast’s award-winning memoir masterfully combines cartoons, text, and photographs to challenge readers’ perceptions of death and dementia.

Organized by Pamela Schaff (Family Medicine and Pediatrics), Lyn BoydJudson (Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics), Alexander Capron (Law and Medicine), Lynn Kysh (USC Libraries), and Ron Ben-Ari (Medicine). Cosponsored by the Keck School of Medicine’s Program in Medical Humanities, Arts, and Ethics, the USC Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics, and the USC Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics.

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Kamasi Washington in Concert and Conversation A VISIONS AND VOICES SIGNATURE EVENT Tuesday, September 20, 7:30 p.m.

Bovard Auditorium Take an epic musical journey with Kamasi Washington, one of the most exciting new musicians in any genre. GQ describes his triple-disc masterpiece The Epic as “the kind of album that can shift your mood . . . the moment you press ‘play.’” Washington breathes new life into jazz while bringing jazz to audiences who had no idea they would love it. He played sax and arranged and conducted the string section on Kendrick Lamar’s celebrated album To Pimp a Butterfly. He has toured with Snoop Dogg and played with Gerald Wilson, Raphael Saadiq, Lauryn Hill, and Mos Def. A performance

by Washington and his band will be interweaved with a discussion moderated by USC Annenberg professor Josh Kun exploring music, community, and growing up in South L.A. Co-sponsored by the Black Student Assembly.

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Hidden Infrastructures An Evening with Trevor Paglen Thursday, September 22, 7 p.m.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library 240 Artist and geographer Trevor Paglen will deliver a thought-provoking lecture insisting that in order to sustain democracy in the face of a surveillance state, we need visual creativity. Paglen’s work spans image-making, sculpture, investigative journalism, military geography, and engineering. He has produced artwork that could remain invisible for up to 30,000 years because of its radioactive charge; photographed classified American satellites; projected secret government code names onto public buildings; and even sent a satellite into orbit. His work has been exhibited at Vienna Secession, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tate Modern, and other venues.

Organized by Noura Wedell and the USC Roski School of Art and Design.

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Focus Forsythe: The Choreographer’s Process Thursday, September 29, 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

Friday, September 30, 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center 102 William Forsythe has been pushing dance forward for almost half a century as resident choreographer of the Stuttgart Ballet, director of Ballet Frankfurt, and leader of The Forsythe Company. His dances are featured in the repertoire of almost every major ballet company in the world. For the first time since he joined the faculty at the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance last year, Forsythe will invite the community into his creative practice. Kaufman students will perform one of Forsythe’s newest works, followed by a conversation with Forsythe moderated by Jodie Gates, vice dean and director of the Kaufman School. Joining the conversation will be Forsythe’s longtime collaborators Jill Johnson and Christopher Roman.

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Photo: Rose Eichenbaum

Organized by the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.

An Evening with Suzan-Lori Parks A VISIONS AND VOICES SIGNATURE EVENT Thursday, October 6, 7 p.m.

Town and Gown The astounding playwright Suzan-Lori Parks revisits foundational literary narratives through radically fresh eyes, inspiring us to think anew about race, American history, storytelling, and much more. Parks has been honored with a MacArthur “Genius” Award, a Tony Award, the Horton Foote Prize, and the Kennedy Prize. She was the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in Drama—in 2002, for Topdog/ Underdog—and is writing an ongoing historical cycle that spans the Civil War era to the present. Her Civil War trilogy, Father Comes Home from the Wars, “swoops, leaps, dives and soars, reimagining a turbulent point in American history through a cockeyed contemporary lens” (New York Times). Join us for a swooping, fascinating, and thoughtful discussion with Suzan-Lori Parks.

Photo: Stephanie Diani

Co-sponsored by the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

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Movements, Or What Sound Does the Earth Make?

Tuesday, October 11, 7 p.m.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library 240 When the ground beneath us shifts, it unleashes enormous quantities of energy as seismic waves that race through the earth like sound waves through air. But though we feel them as earthquakes, we can’t hear them.

This fascinating event will bring these normally inaudible sounds to life through a panel discussion, scientific demonstrations, experimental sonification, and creative musical interpretations. Participants include seismologist Lucy Jones of the U.S. Geological Survey; composer and USGS geophysicist Andrew Michael; USC Dornsife College earthquake geologist James Dolan; sound artists DJ /rupture and Ken Goldberg; and USC Annenberg professor Josh Kun. Organized by Bill Dotson and Nathan Masters (USC Libraries).

500 Years of Utopia Governing Paradise Saturday, October 15, 1 p.m.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library 240

Designing Utopia Wednesday, November 9, 7 p.m.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library 240

Utopian Representations Tuesday, February 7, 5 p.m.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library 240 The concept of utopia—a term coined 500 years ago by Sir Thomas More to describe the ideal city—lies at the heart of the Western political imagination. But what does it mean in the context of 21st-century urbanism, especially in a megacity like Los Angeles that has been the setting for utopian and dystopian thinking since its founding? A series of discussions, marking the December 2016 half-millennial anniversary of the book’s publication, consider L.A.’s relation to More’s Utopia from diverse perspectives, amid questions about the area’s natural and built environments, political representation, imagined futures, and large-scale, intractable problems such as homelessness and income inequality.

Organized by the USC Libraries.

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DarkMatter: #ItGetsBitter Thursday, October 20, 7:30 p.m.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library 240 DarkMatter, featuring Alok Vaid-Menon and Janani Balasubramanian, is a trans South Asian performance-art duo based in New York City. A pair of self-described “radical, freaky queers of color who are not proud in the ways that the white gay establishment wants us to be,� DarkMatter is known for their quirky aesthetic and political panache. #ItGetsBitter is a poetry show and an interruption, a mixture of art and activism, poetry and polemic, giggles and gasps. #ItGetsBitter critiques the status quo while imagining new ways of being and resisting.

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The Provost’s Series on Wicked Problems The Provost’s Series on Wicked Problems brings together special guests and USC faculty to discuss the most intractable, multifaceted problems of our time. The series was established by Provost Michael Quick out of a belief that universities must take on “wicked problems” through interdisciplinary collaboration and the education of a new generation of leaders and innovators who just might create the solutions the world needs.

Homelessness: Stories from the Shadows An Evening with Dr. James O’Connell Tuesday, October 25, 7 p.m.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall Doheny Memorial Library 240 Dr. James O’Connell is the founding physician of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and author of Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor. O’Connell will offer an illuminating presentation exploring stories of struggle, survival, hope, and humanity, followed by a probing conversation on the intersections of health, medical care, and homelessness with Professor Suzanne Wenzel of the USC School of Social Work.

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Addiction in America Tuesday, January 24, 7 p.m.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall Doheny Memorial Library 240

Photo: Steve Cohn

In nearly every community in America, licit and illicit drug use leads to tragic consequences, including death. A panel discussion will feature USC professor and health-policy expert Dana Goldman; Dr. Gregory A. Smith, MD, who is committed to combatting addiction and chronic pain; and filmmaker Sasha Knezev, director of American Addict and American Addict 2: The Big Lie. They will engage in a critical conversation about the American addiction epidemic, and what it will take to save lives.

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The Comedy Festival, Vol. 3: The Changing Face of Comedy Friday, October 28 through Sunday, October 30 Frank Sinatra Hall at the Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Complex and The Ray Stark Family Theatre, School of Cinematic Arts 108 Following upon the enormous success of two prior comedy festivals, the USC School of Cinematic Arts will celebrate comedy in film, television, and new media in a three-day festival. Artists like Stephen Colbert, Key and Peele, Lena Dunham, Tig Notaro, John Oliver, and Louis C.K., and shows like Veep, Transparent, and Orange Is the New Black, have advanced our national discourse around same-sex marriage, trans rights, the changing role of women, immigration reform, and electoral politics— while cracking us up. The third installment of the Comedy Festival will feature screenings and conversations focusing on the changing face of on-screen comedy, the diversity of comic voices behind the scenes, and the role of comedy in contemporary politics.

Organized by the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

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The Trans/Gender Tipping Point? Representing Gender Variance from Tangerine to Transparent Wednesday, November 2, 7 p.m.

The Ray Stark Family Theatre, School of Cinematic Arts 108 It’s been a watershed year for trans representation in film and TV. Yet, as welcome as visibility may be, it has also drawn attention to persistent anxieties about the movement of trans people through gender-normative landscapes, from public bathrooms to prisons. Two panel discussions will explore the many meanings of trans visibility, from mainstream television to experimental film and video, and the shifting nature of trans politics. Participants include Mya Taylor (Tangerine), Chris E. Vargas (Museum of Transgender Hirstory and Art), Sam Feder (Kate Bornstein Is a Queer and Pleasant Danger), Eric Stanley (Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex), and Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst (Transparent).

Photo: Radium Cheung and Sean Baker

Organized by Karen Tongson (English and Gender Studies) and Jack Halberstam (American Studies and Ethnicity, Gender Studies, and Comparative Literature). Co-sponsored by the USC LGBT Resource Center.

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Thursday, November 3, 6 p.m.

Wallis Annenberg Hall, Room L105A Got questions about Islam? Now’s your chance to ask. In a multimedia forum that will challenge us all to get real and grow, Muslim feminist author Irshad Manji will answer USC students’ most candid questions about Islam—even the offensive ones. Manji is the internationally best-selling author of The Trouble with Islam Today, creator of the Emmy-nominated film Faith without Fear, founder of the Moral Courage Project, and a senior fellow at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Oprah Winfrey gave Manji the first annual Chutzpah Award for “audacity, nerve, boldness, and conviction.” Don’t miss this opportunity to ask your own bold questions about Islam and to learn from the audacity of your peers.

Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

Forbidden Questions about Islam: Turning Polarization into Constructive Conversation

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Photo: Ken Howard

Photo: Brent Stirton

Organized by the USC Annenberg Office of the Dean and the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy.

VISIONS AND VOICES

The Metropolitan Opera in HD The USC School of Cinematic Arts will host a series of satellite broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera presented in spectacular HD digital projection and 5.1 surround sound. Ken Cazan, chair of vocal arts and opera and resident stage director at the USC Thornton School of Music, will host discussions prior to the operas listed below.

Mozart’s Don Giovanni Sunday, November 13 12 p.m.: Pre-Opera Discussion 1 p.m.: HD Opera Broadcast Frank Sinatra Hall at the Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Complex The charismatic Simon Keenlyside sings the role of the title hero, who goes to hell in a dazzling coup de theatre. Malin Byström sings Donna Elvira, Hibla Gerzmava is Donna Anna, and Rolando Villazón is Don Ottavio. Fabio Luisi conducts.

Verdi’s La Traviata Saturday, April 1 12 p.m.: Pre-Opera Discussion 1 p.m.: HD Opera Broadcast Frank Sinatra Hall at the Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Complex Sonya Yoncheva sings one of opera’s most beloved heroines, the tragic courtesan Violetta, opposite Michael Fabiano as her lover, Alfredo, and Thomas Hampson as his father. Nicola Luisotti conducts.

Organized by the USC School of Cinematic Arts in conjunction with the USC Thornton School of Music and the Metropolitan Opera.

USC Thornton Opera Presents Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar BRENT MCMUNN, CONDUCTOR KEN CAZAN, STAGE DIRECTOR Friday, November 18 7 p.m.: Pre-Performance Discussion 8 p.m.: Opera Performance Bing Theatre The USC Thornton Opera, in collaboration with the USC Thornton Symphony, will perform a fully staged production of Osvaldo Golijov’s award-winning opera Ainadamar. With a Spanish-language libretto by renowned playwright David Henry Hwang, Ainadamar (Arabic for “Fountain of Tears”) imagines the final hours of the brilliant Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca through the eyes of Margarita Xirgu, the great Catalan actress who was famous for interpreting Lorca’s complex female roles. The production will feature flamenco guitarist and USC Thornton professor Adam del Monte, who played on the GRAMMYwinning recording of Ainadamar.

Organized by the USC Thornton School of Music.

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WHAT MOVES YOU Featuring Lil Buck and Ashley Bathgate A VISIONS AND VOICES SIGNATURE EVENT Thursday, December 1, 7:30 p.m.

Bovard Auditorium Charles “Lil Buck” Riley brought international attention to the street dance Memphis jookin’ in 2011 when a video of his spectacular improvised performance with cellist Yo-Yo Ma—who declared Lil Buck a “genius”—went viral on YouTube. Since then, he has blown audiences away performing with Madonna at the Super Bowl, New York City Ballet, and Cirque du Soleil. WHAT MOVES YOU is an intimate collaboration between Lil Buck and one of today’s most accomplished young cellists, Ashley Bathgate. In an incredible interactive performance, Buck and Bathgate, along with movement artist Jon Boogz, will reveal the intricacy and immediacy of the creative relationship between movement and music, and challenge the boundaries of what their respective instruments—the body and the cello—can do.

Wednesday, November 30, 5:30 p.m.

Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center 102 In a wildly fun workshop, Lil Buck will introduce students to jookin’, the Memphis street dance he brought to the world’s attention.

Co-sponsored by the Black Student Assembly.

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Photo (Lil Buck): Kyle Cordova Photo (Ashley Bathgate): Bill Wadman

Related Event: Jookin’ with Buck

Forging “The Knife”—Kurt Weill Before Broadway Thursday, January 19, 8 p.m.

Alfred Newman Recital Hall Explore the musical and political roots of Kurt Weill (“Mack the Knife,” “Moon of Alabama”) in a special evening of performance and conversation with violin virtuoso and humanitarian Daniel Hope and distinguished pianist, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra music director, and USC Thornton professor Jeffrey Kahane. They will share insights on Weill’s compositions, life, and career as a young composer in 1920s Berlin, before he fled Nazi Germany and became one of Broadway’s most enduring songwriters. LACO musicians and USC Thornton faculty and students will join Hope and Kahane in a performance featuring Weill’s major chamber works, including the Sonata for Cello and Piano, String Quartet No. 1, early songs, and vocal duets, as well as excerpts from Little Threepenny Music.

Organized by the USC Thornton School of Music and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as part of LACO’s “Lift Every Voice” project. Co-sponsored by Ned and Dana Newman, and Ruth L. Eliel and Bill Cooney.

Photo (Daniel Hope): Margaret Malandruccolo/DG Photo (Jeffrey Kahane): Colorado Symphony Orchestra

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A masterpiece. Hopscotch has broken the fourth wall with a vengeance.

—The Wall Street Journal

Hopscotch: Taking Opera to the Streets Hopscotch is the internationally acclaimed mobile opera that took L.A. by storm in 2015. Performed in cars and at iconic Los Angeles sites, Hopscotch completely altered how we think about opera.

What Does Hopscotch Sound Like?

Friday, January 20, 4 p.m.

Wallis Annenberg Hall, Room L105A Hear from Hopscotch composers, director Yuval Sharon, and other people behind The Industry, the independent artist-driven company that made Hopscotch, in a fascinating conversation with arts journalists about producing live performing arts in L.A.’s public spaces.

Hopscotch in Concert Friday, January 20, 7:30 p.m.

Alfred Newman Recital Hall Join us for the first-ever live concert of six songs from Hopscotch. Then, learn more about opera’s new directions in a speed-dating-style post-show reception with The Industry’s creative team, its six Hopscotch composers, and esteemed journalists who cover the new music scene.

Organized by Sasha Anawalt (Arts Journalism) and Veronika Krausas (Music).

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VISIONS AND VOICES Photo: Dana Ross

I’m Still Here, Still A Performance by Alexandra Billings Thursday, January 26, 7 p.m.

Bing Theatre Alexandra Billings tells her life story in I’m Still Here, Still, a cabaret performance full of humor and pathos, past shame and transformation, show tunes and sequins. It is the triumphant life story of a little boy from Inglewood who through a dark pathway of shame and self-hatred found the trans woman she was born to be and recognized her as the truest light and the most profound gift. Alexandra Billings plays Davina on Transparent. In 2005, she became the first transgender actress to play a transgender character in the history of television. The PBS documentary about her life, Schoolboy to Showgirl, was nominated for an Emmy.

Related Event: Is Hollywood “Transparent”? Identity and “Mis”representation in the Industry Friday, January 27, 3 p.m.

McClintock Theatre Trans people are more visible than ever before in mainstream film and television. A panel of actors and activists, including Transparent ’s Alexandra Billings, will consider whether Hollywood is helping or hurting struggles for gender justice.

Organized by the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

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Building Blocks of the Future: The Minecraft Experience @ USC Game Jam: Begins Saturday, January 28, at 10 a.m.

Game Innovation Lab Panel Discussion: Sunday, January 29, 2 p.m.

The Ray Stark Family Theatre, School of Cinematic Arts 108 Since its release in 2011, the Swedish game Minecraft has captured the attention of a generation. Less a traditional game than a form of building blocks for the digital age, it is one of the best-selling video games of all time, with more than 100 million registered users for whom Minecraft is a vast virtual springboard for the imagination. We will celebrate the curiosity and creativity of the USC community with a Minecraft game jam, where students will work in teams to build their visions for USC’s future, and a panel discussion featuring Connected Camps’ Summer of Minecraft founders Mizuko Ito and Katie Salen Tekinbaş and The Minecraft Teacher, Joel Levin.

Organized by Amanda Ochsner (Education), Tracy Fullerton (Interactive Media and Games), Erin Reilly (Annenberg Innovation Lab), and Zoe Corwin (Education).

Co-sponsored by the USC Game Innovation Lab, MEGA, the Pullias Center for Higher Education, and the Annenberg Innovation Lab. *This is not an official Minecraft event and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Minecraft.

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Image: Lucas Peterson

Byzantium 2.0: Acoustic Time Travel Thursday, February 9, 7 p.m.

Saint Sophia Cathedral 1324 Normandie Avenue, Los Angeles, 90006 Take a journey across time to medieval Byzantium. Experience virtual ancient acoustic spaces with cutting-edge immersive-audio technologies, performances by award-winning chanters Spyridon Antonopoulos and Dimos Papatzalakis, and a specially commissioned composition by Paz Lenchantin, the current bassist for the Pixies. After the performance, recording engineer James Donahue, artist Olya Dubatova, audio engineer and USC professor Chris Kyriakakis, and Sharon Gerstel, a professor of Byzantine art history and archaeology at UCLA, will discuss the technologies and implications of recreating the sensation of presence in ancient spaces.

Organized by Chris Kyriakakis (Electrical Engineering) and Sharon Gerstel (Art History, UCLA).

A Tribute to Ridley Scott Friday, February 10 through Sunday, February 12 Frank Sinatra Hall at the Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Complex Join us for a very special tribute to Ridley Scott, the legendary director of Blade Runner, Alien, Thelma and Louise, and dozens of other films.

Scott’s storied career is nearly unparalleled. He has traversed genres and historical periods, and mixed fantasy with biographical drama, epics with small personal stories. A three-day tribute will include film screenings, panel discussions, and an exhibition of treasures from the Ridley Scott Collection, which includes memorabilia spanning 35 years of his career that Scott donated to the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2015. Curated by Andrea Gutierrez, the collection includes scripts, awards, photographs, storyboards and production-design boards, editing notes, memoranda, and film elements from more than twenty films.

Organized by the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

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Some of a Thousand Words Featuring Wendy Whelan, Brian Brooks, and Brooklyn Rider A VISIONS AND VOICES SIGNATURE EVENT Tuesday, February 21, 7:30 p.m.

Bovard Auditorium

Photos: Erin Baiano

Wendy Whelan, one of the world’s leading dancers, spent 30 years with the New York City Ballet. Celebrated choreographer Brian Brooks is the director of the Brian Brooks Moving Company. Whelan and Brooks will perform their tour-deforce duet First Fall along with luminous new work they have created with string quartet Brooklyn Rider, “one of the wonders of contemporary music” (Los Angeles Times). The stunning First Fall bears testament to Whelan and Brooks’ friendship and effervescent artistic chemistry. Their new collaboration with Brooklyn Rider, Some of a Thousand Words, illuminates the intimate relationship between music and dance, featuring music by John Luther Adams, Tyondai Braxton, Philip Glass, Evan Ziporyn, and Brooklyn Rider’s own Colin Jacobsen.

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sSISTERSs Thursday, February 23, 8 p.m.

Friday, February 24, 8 p.m.

Location TBD From Gina Young, the award-winning writer/director of Tales of a Fourth Grade Lesbo and Femmes: A Tragedy, comes a new punk musical. Trapped in the drawing room of an old Victorian house, three sisters embody famous triads in a psychedelic, stream-of-consciousness trip through time. From Chekhov’s Masha, Irina, and Olga to the three main Native American crops to the Catholic Holy Trinity to the first three waves of American feminism, the sisters take on shifting ideas of sisterhood through time. With a live band, haunting harmonies, and a throwback to the witchy rituals of girlhood, sSISTERSs explores memory, mortality, female sexuality, and the struggles of being a woman artist.

Photo: Jenn Pablo

Organized by Karen Tongson (English and Gender Studies) and Luis Alfaro (Dramatic Arts).

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Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca: Antigona A VISIONS AND VOICES SIGNATURE EVENT Wednesday, March 1, 7:30 p.m.

Bovard Auditorium

—The New Yorker

”

Photos: Zarmik Moqtaderi

Don’t miss Antigona, Martín Santangelo’s stunning flamenco interpretation of Sophocles’ Antigone, performed by Noche Flamenca and starring flamenco superstar Soledad Barrio as a disenfranchised woman struggling against patriarchal authority.

Noche Flamenca is the most authentic flamenco company touring today. Formed in 1993 by Santangelo and Barrio, the company is celebrated around the world for its spellbinding, deeply emotional performances.

“

Never, until I saw Santangelo’s ensemble, their heels stamping, their arms cutting through the air, had I seen a chorus whose physical force could support the fate-heavy songs that Sophocles wrote for his plays.

As for Barrio, though she spoke rarely, dancing seemed better than words: no rhetoric, no explanations, but just passion, majesty, absorption.

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Griot! African and European Improvisations with Jalli Lamin Kuyateh and the USC Thornton Baroque Sinfonia Friday, March 3, 8 p.m.

Alfred Newman Recital Hall Guest artist Lamin Kuyateh joins music director Adam Gilbert and the USC Thornton Baroque Sinfonia for a fascinatingly unusual meeting of musical styles, time periods, and instruments. As a griot (or jalli), Kuyateh comes from a long tradition of Gambian bards. He plays the African gourd harp (or kora) while singing birimintingo and kumbengo, improvised songs and stories that tell history, sing in praise and love, and offer sage advice. This special concert will feature stories, songs, and improvisations that wed two traditions—African griot and Euro-Baroque band—hand in hand. Jalli Lamin Kuyateh lives in the Netherlands, where he blends traditional and modern African music.

Organized by the USC Thornton School of Music. Co-sponsored by the Black Student Assembly.

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Sound Art with Composer and Instrument Inventor Paul Dresher Sound Maze A VISIONS AND VOICES SIGNATURE EVENT Friday, March 3 through Wednesday, March 8 Opening Reception: Saturday, March 4, 5 to 7 p.m.

USC Fisher Museum of Art Listen, play, and discover sound anew as you improvise with newly invented musical instruments in Sound Maze, an interactive exhibition created by the renowned composer, performer, and instrument inventor Paul Dresher in collaboration with Alex Vittum and Daniel Schmidt. This remarkable hands-on installation lets you experiment with extraordinary inventions to discover new ways of creating sound and music.

Co-sponsored by the USC Fisher Museum of Art.

Paul Dresher and the Dresher/Davel Invented Instrument Duo Paul Dresher and percussionist extraordinaire Joel Davel come together for an exciting electro-acoustic performance on extraordinary musical instruments of their own invention. Hear lush textures and fascinating rhythmic structures as Dresher and Davel create music on these utterly unique instruments, such as the four-stringed and fifteen-foot-long quadrachord—and then come onstage to explore the instruments yourself.

Organized by Karen Koblitz (Art and Design) and Veronika Krausas (Music).

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Photo (Peacock): Chi Wang Photo (Paul Dresher): Mark Palmer

Tuesday, March 7, 7:30 p.m.

Alfred Newman Recital Hall

A Curiously Moving Talk with Dana Caspersen Wednesday, March 22, 7 p.m.

Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center 102 Conflict specialist, choreographer, and performer Dana Caspersen believes in the power of the individual to positively transform destructive systems. Learn the physicalized methods she has developed for creating change in conflicts—from the interpersonal to the international—in a unique interactive event that focuses on transforming conflict by changing your own actions and approach. Caspersen’s work draws on 40 years of experience as a performing-arts innovator and extensive international research and practice. She has performed with Ballet Frankfurt and The Forsythe Company, and is the author of Changing the Conversation: The 17 Principles of Conflict Resolution.

Organized by the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.

Uncanny Valleys: Thinking and Feeling in the Age of Synthetic Humans Thursday, March 23 4 p.m.: Interactive Showcase 5:30 p.m.: Panel Discussion Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall Doheny Memorial Library 240 From service robots to virtual agents like Apple’s Siri, humanlike machines are poised to grow ever more integral to our lives. Researchers like Hiroshi Ishiguro, Yoshio Matsumoto, Travis Deyle, and Jonathan Gratch of the USC Institute for Creative Technologies are giving humanlike qualities to machines, an endeavor that poses both practical design challenges and philosophical questions. Join us for a discussion with leading creators of humanlike machines and historian of science Jessica Riskin (The Restless Clock) about the future of artificial life. You’ll also have a chance to explore an interactive showcase of humanlike machines currently under development. In conjunction with this event, the USC Libraries will present an exhibition on artificial intelligence and virtual humans in Doheny Library.

Photo (background): Marion Borriss

Organized by Melissa Miller, Tyson Gaskill, and Jade Winn (USC Libraries). Cosponsored by the USC Institute for Creative Technologies and USC Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study.

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Anarchy in Asian America: Sex, Punk, and Transgressive Cinema Friday, March 24 7 p.m.: Panel Discussion The Ray Stark Family Theatre, School of Cinematic Arts 108 9 p.m.: After Party and Concert Tommy’s Place, Ronald Tutor Campus Center Gregg Araki, Roddy Bogawa, Marcus Hu, and Jon Moritsugu—the “bad boys” of Asian American cinema—have exploded notions of identity and identification through a radicalized indie-film aesthetic inspired as much by the anything-goes energy of the underground music scene as by the formalist experimentations of directors like Godard. Join us for a panel discussion exploring how indie cinema has been transformed by their punk-influenced, sexually and artistically transgressive, DIY filmmaking, followed by an after party featuring a live performance by twisted glam rock/garage/ punk band Low on High (Jon Moritsugu and Amy Davis).

Organized by Akira Lippit (Cinematic Arts, Comparative Literature, and East Asian Languages and Cultures), Viet Nguyen (English and American Studies and Ethnicity), Sunyoung Lee (Kaya Press), and Jonathan Wang (Asian Pacific American Student Services). Co-sponsored by Asian Pacific American Student Services and the USC School of Cinematic Arts’s Outside the Box [Office].

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China Trace: The Export of Chinese Ceramics in the Global Market

Darkness in the Archives: Queer Opacity as Resistance Tuesday, March 28, 7:30 p.m.

ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries 909 West Adams Boulevard Los Angeles, 90007

Please join us for two events held in conjunction with the USC Pacific Asia Museum’s exhibition China Trace: The Export of Chinese Ceramics in the Global Market, which will be on display from Thursday, March 2 through Sunday, August 6, in the Doheny Memorial Library Treasure Room.

Collections on the Road: Trade Ceramics of Asia

Since the emergence of gay-rights movements in the United States, visibility and legibility within the public sphere have remained ideals of political efficacy. But now, as gay and lesbian issues are being rapidly mainstreamed, many artists and theorists are pushing against visibility as a social and political enterprise. Their critiques point to the corporatization of political dissent and the growing sophistication of policing and surveillance, particularly of racialized and gender-nonconforming bodies. In response to these pressing issues, artists and scholars will examine forms of refusal, negativity, and the antisocial as uniquely relevant to our contemporary moment, proposing that opacity is a crucial tactic of queer subjectivity.

Wednesday, March 29, 7 p.m.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall Doheny Memorial Library 240 How did the exchange of ceramics affect domestic and international trade along sea and land routes in Asia? How did China and other countries influence ceramics artists? USC professor and internationally renowned ceramicist Karen Koblitz will talk with experts in Asian business and economics about the role of ceramics in Asia.

Trade Ceramics of Asia: Exhibition Tour and Ceramics Workshop Friday, April 7, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Doheny Memorial Library and Galen Ceramics Studio

Organized by ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries.

Karen Koblitz will lead a guided tour of China Trace: The Export of Chinese Ceramics in the Global Market, followed by a hands-on workshop in decorating ceramics. Taking inspiration from the exhibition, participants will apply blue patterning onto the surface of readymade ceramic forms.

Organized by the USC Pacific Asia Museum.

Zach Blas, Facial Weaponization Suite: Mask, 2013 Photo: Christopher O’Leary

Ginger Jar, China, Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), Porcelain

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Latent Memory: Present Visions of Latin American Political Past Friday, March 31, 7 p.m.

Frank Sinatra Hall at the Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Complex The post-colonial histories of Latin American countries have been characterized by periods of violence, censorship, discrimination, and loss of memory of the recent past. How do artists live and create in societies defined by human catastrophes? A screening of short animated films from Latin America will reveal how animation is being used as a tool for sociopolitical engagement. Several of the filmmakers, including the award-winning Argentinean duo Grasso & Plaza, will provide context to the screening in an illuminating panel discussion.

Santiago Bou Grasso and Patricio Plaza, El Empleo, 2008

Related Event: Data-Driven Animation Workshop

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Saturday, April 1, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

SCB 102 and 104 Colombian animator Juan Camilo Gonzålez will offer a hands-on workshop on data-driven animation. You’ll learn about tools that can transform statistical data on social issues into interactive visualizations and real-time web animations.

Organized by Sheila M. Sofian and Lisa Mann (Animation and Digital Arts).

VISIONS AND VOICES

Doctors’ Orders for a Good Death: Caitlin Doughty and Lindsey Fitzharris Thursday, April 6, 4:30 p.m.

Mayer Auditorium, Health Sciences Campus Most Americans are uncomfortable talking about death. Unfortunately, this means that most American doctors and patients are ill-equipped to deal with end-of-life issues. In a surprisingly lively conversation, three members of the death-acceptance organization Order of the Good Death—mortician Caitlin Doughty, author of the New York Times best seller Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory; medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris; and USC medical librarian and Death Salon director Megan Rosenbloom (moderator)—will address American death denial, its impact on healthcare, and how we can improve the experience of death and dying.

Organized by Megan Rosenbloom (USC Libraries).

Los Angeles, City of Tomorrow Thursday, April 13, 4:30 p.m.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library 240 What will Los Angeles look like in a generation? If done right, the development of the city will be carefully planned, using the best technology and scientific insights to create an L.A. that is not only environmentally sustainable, but also more fun and more beautiful than ever. Join us for a fascinating discussion on what it will take to plan a sustainable L.A., with Jon Christensen of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability; Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, the James Irvine Chair in Urban and Regional Planning at the USC Price School of Public Policy; Ashley Z. Hand, transportation technology fellow for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation; and Adam Rogers (moderator), an editor at WIRED. Organized by Susan Metros, Phaidra Speirs, and the USC Roski School of Art and Design in collaboration with Jacob Young (WIRED). Co-sponsored by WIRED.

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Lost City: Songs from a Changing Sea Friday, April 21, 8 p.m.

Tommy’s Place

The Hotel Play

The enchanting band Rabbit Rabbit (Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi), together with USC engineering professor George Ban-Weiss (bass), Michael Abraham (guitar), and composer/musician Jeremy Flower (electronics), will perform a newly created song cycle inspired by the ocean, the people who live near it, the creatures that call it home, and the changes it is undergoing due to climate change, overfishing, and pollution. With Taylor Heyl, a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and radio producer Melissa Allison, this eclectic musical ensemble has collected and recorded interviews with people whose lives are tied to the sea, from oceanographic scientists to fishermen. Weaving together the interviews, field recordings, and music, they have created a sea-inspired soundscape that fuses contemporary classical music, rock, and electronica.

Saturday, April 15, 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Location TBD On April 29, 1992, Los Angeles erupted after four police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. In The Hotel Play, a group of friends whose high-school graduation was interrupted by the civil unrest gather to celebrate their 25th high-school reunion at a hotel in South L.A. The Hotel Play is an immersive experience in which audience members travel from room to room with the characters on a journey out of turmoil and toward collective convergence. Commissioned to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Playwrights’ Arena, The Hotel Play was written by seven playwrights associated with USC: Paula Cizmar, Velina Hasu Houston, Jennifer Maisel, Nahal Navidar, Julie Taiwo Oni, Janine Salinas Schoenberg, and Laurie Woolery.

Organized by George Ban-Weiss (Civil and Environmental Engineering).

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Photo (top): Peter Gannushkin

Organized by Paula Cizmar (Dramatic Arts), Velina Hasu Houston (Dramatic Arts), and Amy Murphy (Architecture). Co-sponsored by the Black Student Assembly.

An Evening with Visual Artist Shirin Neshat Tuesday, April 25, 7 p.m.

Bovard Auditorium Shirin Neshat, born in Iran and based in New York City, is one of the most prominent living artists. Her work probes issues of gender, power, displacement, protest, identity, and the space between the personal and the political. Neshat’s photography, video installations, and films have been shown at museums and festivals across the globe, and she has been awarded the International Award at the Venice Biennale, the Silver Lion for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival, and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. In a wide-ranging and inspiring talk, Neshat will discuss the role of art and freedom of expression in an enlightened and just society.

Related Event: A Film Screening with Shirin Neshat Wednesday, April 26, 7 p.m.

The Ray Stark Family Theatre, School of Cinematic Arts 108 Shirin Neshat will present a screening of one of her projects, followed by a Q&A moderated by Linda Komaroff, curator of Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Organized by Laurie A. Brand (Middle East Studies), Sherin Guirguis (Art and Design), Afaf Nash (Middle East Studies), and Renee Almassizadeh (Middle East Studies).

Shirin Neshat, Rebellious Silence, 1994 Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery

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Rhythms + Visions / Expanded + Live 3 Friday, April 28, 8 p.m. to midnight Meldman Park, USC School of Cinematic Arts Rhythms + Visions / Expanded + Live 3 will light up the USC School of Cinematic Arts Complex in an evening of music, interactive animation, large exterior projections, inflatables, and virtual reality.

Groundbreaking artist Refik Anadol, who has performed with the L.A. Philharmonic at Disney Hall, will make visual music on a superpanoramic 70-foot screen. Miwa Matreyek’s full-body shadow will interact with magical animated worlds. Patterson + Reckinger will perform an animated piece for three toy pianos and three-channel, one-bit electronics, and the VR Visual Music Lounge will offer exciting virtual-reality musical experiences.

Organized by Michael Patterson, Candace Reckinger, Eric Hanson, and Scott Fisher (Cinematic Arts).

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EXPERIENCE L.A.

USC Visions and Voices offers a variety of stimulating opportunities for USC students to experience Los Angeles’s world-class cultural landscape. YOU MUST BE A USC STUDENT AND USE THE PROVIDED TRANSPORTATION TO PARTICIPATE. SPACE IS LIMITED AND ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. For more information or to RSVP, please visit our website at visionsandvoices.usc.edu.

Artists at Play: The Two Kids That Blow S**t Up Written by Carla Ching Thursday, September 1 Depart USC at 7:15 p.m.; return at 10:15 p.m.

The Lounge Theatre, Hollywood Asian American theatre collective Artists at Play presents The Two Kids That Blow S**t Up by rising playwright Carla Ching. The play follows Diana and Max, who meet when they are ten years old. Their parents have an affair, break up, get back together, marry, and divorce, and Diana and Max see each other through it all, trying not to make the mistakes their parents did.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Written by August Wilson Wednesday, October 12 Depart USC at 7 p.m.; return at 11:30 p.m.

Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles An American masterpiece, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a powerful depiction of rage and racism set in 1927 Chicago during a recording session with a singer inspired by Gertrude “Ma” Rainey. Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad directs this groundbreaking play from August Wilson’s American Century Cycle, a series of ten plays chronicling the twentieth-century African American experience.

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Newsha Tavakolian, Untitled, 2011

Islamic Art Now, Part 2: Contemporary Art of the Middle East Friday, October 14 Depart USC at 10 a.m.; return at 1 p.m.

LACMA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles Islamic Art Now, Part 2 features contemporary works by artists from Iran, the Arab world, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and northwest Africa, including Shoja Azari, Lulwah Al Homoud, Burhan Doǧançay, Fereydoun Ave, Sherin Guirguis, Newsha Tavakolian, Shadi Ghadirian, Hassan Hajjaj, Ahmed Mater, and Faig Ahmed, among others.

Photo (Joshua Bell): Chris Lee

Los Angeles Philharmonic: Dudamel and Joshua Bell Sunday, October 16 Depart USC at 12:30 p.m.; return at 4:30 p.m.

Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles This enticing program boasts masterworks by two giants of late German Romanticism. Hear the pristine, Apollonian majesty of Johannes Brahms’s Violin Concerto, featuring virtuoso Joshua Bell.

Then, a Dionysian outlook takes over with Richard Strauss’s vivid characterization of Don Juan, followed by the defiant joker of German folklore, Till Eulenspiegel. Gustavo Dudamel conducts.

Celebrate Forsythe

Photo: Erik Tomasson

Saturday, October 22 Depart USC at 6 p.m.; return at 10 p.m.

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles

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Experience a never-before-seen approach to dance performance as the San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Houston Ballet share the stage in a program of work by acclaimed American choreographer William Forsythe, widely viewed as the greatest innovator in his field since George Balanchine.

Theater Mitu: JUÁREZ: A Documentary Mythology Friday, November 4 Depart USC at 7:15 p.m.; return at 10:15 p.m.

Los Angeles Theatre Center, Los Angeles In the past decade, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, emerged as the “Murder Capital of the World.” Across the border, El Paso, Texas, branded itself the “Safest Large City in America.” JUÁREZ: A Documentary Mythology, based on hundreds of hours of interviews, is a theatrical exploration of this border community.

M. Butterfly Written by David Henry Hwang Wednesday, November 16 Depart USC at 6:45 p.m.; return at 11:30 p.m.

The Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena Inspired by Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, David Henry Hwang’s Tony Award–winning play M. Butterfly tells the story of a French diplomat who carried on an affair with a Peking opera star for twenty years, only to discover that his “perfect woman” was a man. Based on a true story, the play explores the persistent romanticism that clouds and inhibits Western perceptions of Eastern culture.

Los Angeles Philharmonic: Romeo and Juliet with Dudamel Thursday, February 2 Depart USC at 6:30 p.m.; return at 10 p.m.

Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles Violinist Lisa Batiashvili’s passionate and poetic approach is ideally suited to Tchaikovsky’s thrilling Romantic Violin Concerto. With its wonderfully dancing tunefulness and vivid orchestration, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet score proves a worthy successor to Tchaikovsky’s ballet music.

Gustavo Dudamel conducts.

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Kara Walker, The Means to an End… A Shadow Drama in Five Acts, 1998

Non-fiction Saturday, February 4 Depart USC at 12 p.m.; return at 2 p.m.

The Underground Museum, Arlington Heights Non-fiction is an exhibition of art that investigates the culture of violence perpetrated on black citizens, with works by Kara Walker, Henry Taylor, Marion Palfi, Theaster Gates, Robert Gober, David Hammons, Deana Lawson, and Kerry James Marshall.

Free Outgoing Written by Anupama Chandrasekhar Thursday, February 16 Depart USC at 7:15 p.m.; return at 10:30 p.m.

East West Players, Los Angeles Modern technology and old-world values collide in Free Outgoing, a play about a middle-class home in Chennai torn apart by an indiscreet cell-phone video. When a well-behaved Indian girl is filmed with a boy in her classroom, the video clip goes viral, infecting what feels like the entire country with a burning moral outrage.

Photo: Joan Marcus

Fun Home Score by Jeanine Tesori; Book and Lyrics by Lisa Kron

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Saturday, March 25 Depart USC at 7:15 p.m.; return at 11 p.m.

Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles Don’t miss the landmark musical Fun Home, a refreshingly honest story about seeing one’s parents through grown-up eyes. Based on Alison Bechdel’s beloved graphic novel, the groundbreaking and exquisite Fun Home won five 2015 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

At a Glance: Events by Date

2016

August

8/18 SPARK! 11th Annual Visions and Voices Multimedia Kickoff, p. 3

8/26 The World According to Frederick Wiseman, p. 4

8/26 National Gallery with Frederick Wiseman, p. 4

September 9/1 The Two Kids That Blow S**t Up, The Lounge Theatre, p. 41 9/9 USC Thornton Symphony: Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, p. 6

9/13 Rebeca Lane: Feminism, Hip Hop, and Guatemala, p. 7

9/14 R.F. Georgy: Notes from the Café, p. 8

9/15 Artivism Workshop with Rebeca Lane, p. 7

9/19 Two Men Talking, p. 9

9/20 Kamasi Washington in Concert and Conversation, p. 10

9/22 Trevor Paglen: Hidden Infrastructures, p. 11 9/29 & 9/30 Focus Forsythe, p. 12

October 10/6 An Evening with Suzan-Lori Parks, p. 13 10/11 Movements, Or What Sound Does the Earth Make?, p. 14

10/12 Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Mark Taper Forum, p. 41

10/15 Governing Paradise, p. 14

10/16 LA Phil: Dudamel and Joshua Bell, Walt Disney Concert Hall, p. 42

10/20 DarkMatter: #ItGetsBitter, p. 15

10/22 Celebrate Forsythe, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, p. 42

Photo: Paula Morales

10/14 Islamic Art Now, LACMA, p. 42

10/25 Homelessness: Stories from the Shadows, p. 16 10/28–10/30 The Comedy Festival, Vol. 3, p. 18

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Photo: Chi Wang

November

11/2 The Trans/Gender Tipping Point?, p. 19

11/3 Forbidden Questions about Islam, p. 20

11/4 JUÁREZ: A Documentary Mythology, Los Angeles Theatre Center, p. 43

11/9 Designing Utopia, p. 14

11/10 Tom Kalin: Fictionalizing History and Reinterpreting the Past, p. 5

11/13 The Met in HD: Mozart’s Don Giovanni, p. 20

11/16 M. Butterfly, The Pasadena Playhouse, p. 43

11/18 USC Thornton Opera Presents Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, p. 21

11/30 Jookin’ with Buck, p. 22

December 12/1 WHAT MOVES YOU: Lil Buck and Ashley Bathgate, p. 22

1/20 What Does Hopscotch Sound Like?, p. 24

1/20 Hopscotch in Concert, p. 24

1/24 Addiction in America, p. 17

1/26 Alexandra Billings: I’m Still Here, Still, p. 25

Photo (Lil Buck): Kyle Cordova

1/27 Is Hollywood “Transparent”?, p. 25

1/28–1/29 Building Blocks of the Future: Minecraft Game Jam, p. 26

1/29 Building Blocks of the Future: Minecraft Discussion, p. 26

VISIONS AND VOICES

January 1/19 Forging “The Knife”—Kurt Weill Before Broadway, p. 23

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2017

February

2/2

2/4 Non-fiction, The Underground Museum, p. 44

2/7 Utopian Representations, p. 14

LA Phil: Romeo and Juliet with Dudamel, Walt Disney Concert Hall, p. 43

2/9 Byzantium 2.0: Acoustic Time Travel, p. 26 2/10–2/12 A Tribute to Ridley Scott, p. 27

2/16 Free Outgoing, East West Players, p. 44

2/21 Wendy Whelan, Brian Brooks, and Brooklyn Rider, p. 28

2/23 & 2/24 sSISTERSs, p. 29

March 3/1 Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca: Antigona, p. 30 3/3 Griot: African and European Improvisations, p. 31 3/3–3/8 Sound Maze Exhibition, p. 32

3/4 Sound Maze Opening Reception, p. 32

3/7 Paul Dresher and the Dresher/Davel Invented Instrument Duo, p. 32

3/22 A Curiously Moving Talk with Dana Caspersen, p. 33

3/23 Uncanny Valleys: Thinking and Feeling in the Age of Synthetic Humans, p. 33

3/24 Anarchy in Asian America: Sex, Punk, and Transgressive Cinema, p. 34

3/25 Fun Home, Ahmanson Theatre, p. 44

3/28 Darkness in the Archives: Queer Opacity as Resistance, p. 35

3/29 Collections on the Road: Trade Ceramics of Asia, p. 35

3/30 Roz Chast: Aging, Alzheimer’s, and the End of Life, p. 9

3/31 Latent Memory: Present Visions of Latin American Political Past, p. 36

April 4/1 Data-Driven Animation Workshop, p. 36

4/1 The Met in HD: Verdi’s La Traviata, p. 20

4/3 Amanda Vickery: From the Classroom to the BBC, p. 5

4/6

4/7 Trade Ceramics of Asia: Exhibition Tour and Ceramics Workshop, p. 35

Doctors’ Orders for a Good Death: Caitlin Doughty and Lindsey Fitzharris, p. 37

4/13 Los Angeles, City of Tomorrow, p. 37

4/15 The Hotel Play, p. 38

4/21 Lost City: Songs from a Changing Sea, p. 38

4/25 An Evening with Visual Artist Shirin Neshat, p. 39

4/26 A Film Screening with Shirin Neshat, p. 39

4/28 Rhythms + Visions / Expanded + Live 3, p. 40

Ginger Jar, China, Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), Porcelain

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Important Information

Contact Information

Admission, Reservations, and Tickets

USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative visionsandvoices@usc.edu (213) 740-0483

Advance reservations are required to attend events.

Most Visions and Voices events are open to the public. However, attendance at some events is limited to USC students or the USC community only.

All events are FREE for USC students.

Admission prices vary for non-USC students.

837 Downey Way Stonier Hall, Suite 203 Los Angeles, CA 90089-1142

Reservations are accepted online only at visionsandvoices.usc.edu.

Visions and Voices E-Mail List Visit our website to sign up for the e-mail list and receive updated event information, RSVP reminders, and other special announcements.

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VISIONS AND VOICES

visionsandvoices.usc.edu

Visions and Voices: Who We Are Leadership

Robin Romans, Associate Vice Provost Daria Yudacufski, Executive Director, Visions and Voices Robert Cutietta, Chair, Visions and Voices Deans’ Council Tara McPherson, Chair, Visions and Voices Faculty Committee

Deans’ Council

Chaired by Robert Cutietta, Dean, USC Thornton School of Music and USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance David Bridel, Dean, USC School of Dramatic Arts Elizabeth Daley, Dean, USC School of Cinematic Arts Selma Holo, Director, USC Fisher Museum of Art Qingyun Ma, Dean, USC School of Architecture Erica Muhl, Dean, USC Roski School of Art and Design Catherine Quinlan, Dean, USC Libraries Ernest James Wilson III, Dean, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Christina Yu Yu, Director, USC Pacific Asia Museum Ex-Officio: Adam Rosen, Assistant Vice President, Cultural Relations and University Events

Faculty Committee

Chaired by Tara McPherson, Cinematic Arts Gail Peter Borden, Architecture Paula Cizmar, Dramatic Arts Cheryl Craft, Ophthalmology Kenneth Foster, Arts Leadership Brenda Goodman, Cinematic Arts d. Sabela grimes, Dance

Jack Halberstam, American Studies and Ethnicity, Gender Studies, and Comparative Literature Donna Heinel, Athletics Amelia Jones, Art and Design Josh Kun, Communication and American Studies and Ethnicity Daniel Richter, Classics David Román, English and American Studies and Ethnicity Varun Soni, Dean, Religious Life Jennifer West, Art and Design Diane Winston, Communication and Journalism Ex-Officio: Adam Rosen, Assistant Vice President, Cultural Relations and University Events USC Students: Tisha Dejmanee, Graduate Representative Brianna Johnson, Undergraduate Representative

Art Department

Eve NaRanong, Art Director Hector M. Catalan, Graphic Designer

Staff

Mary Megowan, Production and Marketing Specialist Marie-Reine Velez, Production and Marketing Specialist Karina Kletscher, Events Coordinator Steve Lin, Web and Systems Administrator

Student Assistants

Nadja Barlera, Student Coordinator Dominique Corona, Student Coordinator

visionsandvoices.usc.edu

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USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative 837 Downey Way Stonier Hall, Suite 203 Los Angeles, CA 90089-1142

visionsandvoices.usc.edu