Ampersand

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A Lifetime of Dancing, an Hour of Improvisation

Sophie BressDecember 6, 2019

Bret Easterling is an international dance artist. He has been dancing and choreographing since childhood. His new piece, BRECHT, is a one-hour solo performance that uses improvisation as a means to discover his own voice. ...

DANCEFrom Where We Are

Mothica finds her light

Haley BosselmanDecember 5, 2019

As we head into a new decade, Ampersand music writer Haley Bosselman zeroes in on pop music's rising artists. “This is my blue hour, and I’m so grate...

INTERVIEWSMUSIC

Madeline Hollander’s dance for science nerds

Aino FrilanderDecember 2, 2019

You may have come across Madeline Hollander's dances at the most recent Whitney Biennial in New York City or seen her handiwork in Jordan Peele’s movie "Us" – she choreographed Lupita Nyong’o’s creepy ballet moves. If you haven’t, keep your eyes...

DANCEFrom Where We Are

American Son and Watchmen Show America Has A Policing Problem

Cate YoungNovember 22, 2019

As the United States grapples with its relationship to the police, Hollywood has tried to reflect that struggle through storytelling. Two texts, in particular ...

CULTUREESSAYSFILM & TV

Through the looking glass: Watching the Watchmen

Zosha MillmanNovember 22, 2019

Is there anything so dissociative as a mirror? That face that stares back at us is somehow neither what we see, nor what people see when they look at us. It’s ...

CULTUREFILM & TVREVIEWS

The Church of Kanye

Keith ReedNovember 22, 2019

Jesus is King is 27 minutes of Kanye speaking to the church of Kanye. This is supposed to be a gospel rap album. Instead, this is an album about a born-again Christian who is interested in money and repentance. Jesus is King was relea...

MUSICREVIEWS

LaRayia Gaston Is Here to Feed L.A.

Megan BotelNovember 21, 2019

LaRayia Gaston is in the kitchen. One hand holds a pan simmering vegan tikka masala, while the other rides firmly on top of a blender as it churns almonds into...

INTERVIEWSLos Angeles

Sleater-Kinney sings despair, but sounds like hope

Victoria AlejandroNovember 20, 2019

The crowd for Sleater-Kinney is a sea of leather and flannel, dyed hair and blunt bangs. There’s an anticipatory bustle as people gently jostle each other on t...

MUSICREVIEWS

Respecting the Dilettante: Elle Woods and the Power of Pink

Cate YoungNovember 20, 2019

It’s a tale as old as time: Boy meets girl. Boy dumps girl. Girl follows boy to Harvard Law School and bests him at every turn. Such is the story of one Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) the paradigmatic, vaguely feminist heroine of 2001’s Legally Blon...

ESSAYSFILM & TVREVIEWSSERIES

Cultivating Creative Space

The Art of Optimistic Nihilism: Jessica Taylor Bellamy’s Beautiful Destruction

Like a Rumble from the Core of the Earth: ‘Memoria’

‘Memoria’s’ Existential Sounds and Silence

The Depths of a Daughter’s Obsessive and Destructive Desire in ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’

‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’: an Undefinable Maximalist Triumph

‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ is Culturally Precise and Ubiquitously Chaotic

Explaining the Rage: The Real Dangers of Live Music

EVENT: Graduate Alumni Panel and Networking Luncheon 4/21