Arts

Are movies art, or entertainment? Does watching violent films encourage violent behavior in teenagers? Should movies be censored? These questions are being debated today, but they were also posed nearly 100 years ago by Hugo Münsterberg, a German psychologist who came to America and fell under the enchantment of the new medium called the “photoplay.”…

They’ve polished their prose and published their poems, so now the young authors are ready to share their writing publicly at the Celebration Reading. This event is the annual culmination of the Creative Writing in the Schools program, which places University of California, Santa Cruz, students, trained to teach creative writing workshops, in local secondary…

100 recently discovered Greek poems, written on papyrus recycled as mummy wrappings, will be the topic of the 17th annual Carl M. Deppe Memorial Lecture in Classical Studies. The lecture, on May 23 at 4 p.m. at the Cowell College Provost House, University of California, Santa Cruz, is free and open to the public. The…

After showing to sell-out audiences in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles during a major retrospective of Satyajit Ray’s work, The Expedition (Abhijaan, 1962), a newly restored film by the Oscar-winning director, will be at the Del Mar Theatre in Santa Cruz for one show only on May 25. Ray’s son Sandip Ray, and film archivist…

If spring is here, can Art in the Arboretum be far behind? This annual event–to be held May 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.–showcases the literary, visual, and performing arts talent of UC Santa Cruz students and faculty. The world-renowned gardens of the UCSC Arboretum, showing their full spring colors, are the venue for…

One of the best-kept secrets of the theater and independent film scene in Santa Cruz is the diverse and original productions presented each spring, free and open to the public, at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This year marks the 23rd Chautauqua Festival, featuring more than 25 new short plays and films, all written,…

A University of California, Santa Cruz, student has earned top honors in two California statewide poetry competitions. “I’m elated,” said Kristen Holden, a junior majoring in literature. “Of course it’s what I wanted, but I wasn’t expecting it to happen.” Both of Holden’s prize-winning works are expansive love poems. “Ten Love Poems Aching from Three…

Duke Ellington rejected it, Charles Mingus was ambivalent about it, and Wynton Marsalis is okay with it. For many African American musicians the word “jazz” is a double-edged term, sometimes representing black accomplishment and virtuosity; sometimes a symbol of segregation and creative limitations. It’s a dichotomy that extends from the word to the music as…

Try this recipe for a special performance event: Take the leadership of Tandy Beal, a theater arts instructor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Add 40 UC Santa Cruz students. Mix well with 200 young local students, their teachers, and community members. Blend in weeks of schools visits, teaching, and practice. The result? Listening…

Satyajit Ray’s movies to be shown in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles A deathbed promise to the internationally acclaimed filmmaker Satyajit Ray has led to the first comprehensive American retrospective of Ray’s films. The Complete Satyajit Ray: Cinema Through the Inner Eye, which includes more than 35 feature films and documentaries produced from 1955 to…