A Look Through the Lens at the 2021 Virginia Film Festival
After a hybrid (but mostly online) approach in 2020, the 2021 festival welcomed guests back to the big screen with opportunities to see the films in theaters around Charlottesville!
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NASA Spacecraft Heads For the Jupiter Trojan Asteroids, with Rita Dove’s Poetry Aboard
An unmanned NASA spacecraft named Lucy is making the first space mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids and includes a plaque imprinted with words of wisdom – including poetry from University of Virginia professor Rita Dove.
Hoo-rizons: How Riding a Train Put Former Football Star on Film’s Fast Track
When something you have done since you were a kid, something you thought was your calling, something you thought would be your career, comes to an abrupt end, what do you do next? For former University of Virginia football player Canaan Severin, the answer came while riding a train.
A Bright Spot: Look Back at the Spring 2021 Semester’s Pop-Up Shows
Earlier this year, with indoor gatherings severely restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Virginia community flocked to outdoor spaces. One local artist gave them something spectacular to look at.
‘We Hope This Art Finds You Well’ Offers Refreshing Perspective on Hard Times
Everything about the COVID-19 pandemic is tiring — hearing about it, talking about it, and living through it is exhausting. Why spend any time looking for anything of value to hang onto here and there when you’d rather just forget about it altogether? Presented by WTJU, "We Hope This Art Finds You Well" does the effort for you in a two-part exhibition that forms a beautiful as well as educational experience showcasing the perseverance of local artists over the pandemic.
Film Festival Highlights: Martha Plimpton, ‘Dopesick,’ and Wes Anderson’s Latest
"There is something truly special about a film festival environment, and about our festival, in particular, that goes beyond the films we show. It is about the community that is created through the sharing and celebration of this remarkable art form, and the chance to come together and experience such a diverse array of films on a wide variety of topics that run the gamut of our emotions and our experiences in the world today.”
UVA Drama to Return to Theatres with a Diverse and Engaging 2021-2022 Season Examining Existential Challenges in Our Lives and for Our Shared Planet
The UVA Department of Drama is returning in person to theatres in 2021-22 with a carefully curated season of plays that highlight the unique array of challenges we face in our lives and around the planet we call home – and celebrating the increasingly vital human power of resilience.
Watch Me’: How An Alumna’s New Play Sprouted From a Popular Media Studies Class
With a father hailing from a family of actors, Caky Winsett was exposed to the theater at a very young age. Yet she never had any interest in becoming an actor herself. However, as Winsett grew older, she realized that she had a love for all of the other elements of theater. That love then turned into a full-on passion at the University of Virginia.
Many Stories to Tell: Alumna Niya Bates Shares African American History and Culture
Niya Bates, a University of Virginia alumna who has worked at Monticello for several years, appeared on the recent Netflix series, “High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America,” to tell a story in episode three.
Kapnick Visiting Writer Rabih Alameddine Brings International Perspective to Grounds
Author Rabih Alameddine has spent time “floating” between professions and continents since college. Concentrating on writing since his mid-30s, he is doing what he feels he is supposed to be doing, Alameddine said recently in an email.
Nursing Student Davon Okoro Doubles as Fashion Designer
When University of Virginia School of Nursing student Davon Okoro recalls his first foray into fashion, he smells bleach. As a 16-year-old, he’d cut T-shirts in half and stitch the mismatches together at a vertical seam, experiment making distress marks and holes, and test the effects of applying bleach with a paintbrush or spray bottle to further alter his fabric canvasses.
Three UVA Alums Mapping the Green Books’ Legacy
Susan Hellman, Anne Bruder, and Catherine Zipf first met in UVA’s School of Architecture when they were pursuing master’s degrees in architectural history, graduating in 1996 or ’97. They kept in touch professionally and started exploring Green Book locations soon after they were digitized.