The world of Paul Thomas Anderson is one in which the mundane, everyday lives of its characters are already riveting before something positively insane happens. Look at his most recent films—had There Will Be Blood only been about the hunt for oil against a beautifully bleak landscape, you would still have a terrific character study […]
The world of Paul Thomas Anderson is one in which the mundane, everyday lives of its characters are already riveting before something positively insane happens. Look at his most recent films—had There Will Be Blood only been about the hunt for oil against a beautifully bleak landscape, you would still have a terrific character study […]
Heralded as a pioneering figure in the field of music for more than five decades, composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s artistic vision knows no bounds. Throughout his prolific career—which boasts upwards of 50 albums—Smith has delved deep into the power of sound, language and even color, to discover what art can tell us about […]
Every day since Donald J. Trump became the Republican presidential nominee on July 21, 2016, local artist Warren Craghead has drawn him, or someone in his administration. Now six months’ worth of Craghead’s daily drawings have been published in a collection titled Trump Trump, Volume 1: Nomination to Inauguration. “I thought when I started it […]
Sitting in the living room of his mom’s house, Malcolm “Waasi” Wills, wearing a retro Looney Tunes T-shirt under a letterman sweater, leans over and lights a stick of incense. As a wisp of smoke curls into the air, Waasi waves it around, blending it into the afternoon light. “I almost cried when I got […]
Through songs and discussion, Horace Scruggs reveals messages, maps and signals in A View from a Train: Decoding the Stories and Music of the Underground Railroad. In this original presentation, Scruggs traces the geographical path and the contributions of abolitionists, including Harriet Tubman, William Still, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglass, whose remarkable work aided […]
Before playing in C’ville, American rapper, singer-songwriter, musician, slam poet, writer and actor Saul Williams has appearances in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Belgium and Austria on his calendar. The global schedule speaks to the broad messages of the art activist, who emphasizes them with album titles such as The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, NGH […]
Childhood friends Taylor Meier and Evan Westfall had been playing music together for years when they decided to form the duo Caamp in 2015. Combining folk guitar with rhythmic banjo picking raised up by seamless harmonies, the act quickly became known for its authentic live performances. The fast rise in popularity also produced a wildly […]
Choreographer Christal Brown’s multimedia creation, The Opulence of Integrity, follows the life of Muhammad Ali and his journey, not only as a boxer, but also as a social activist and public figure. Brown creates a vivid representation of the fight for worth and identity experienced by men of color in America’s history, and makes the […]
On November 11 of last year, equipped with a small clipboard, some index cards and a handful of pens, Destinee Wright waited outside the Paramount Theater after a discussion with Spike Lee about race and racial injustice in America, followed by a screening of two Lee documentary films, I Can’t Breathe and 4 Little Girls. […]
Alfred Hitchcock once noted that Steven Spielberg “is the first one of us who doesn’t see the proscenium arch,” referring to his ability to expand the visual and metaphorical limits of what could be displayed on a screen. The late-career political films of Spielberg would already be remarkable on their own terms, even if they […]