The Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents costume designer Moyenda Kulemeka, who will speak about her creative work, including a behind-the-scenes view of her process designing costumes for Trouble in Mind, by Alice Childress and directed by Danielle Drakes, playing in UMBC’s Proscenium Theatre from November 3 through 13.
The Humanities Forum and the Department of History presents the annual Robert K. Webb Lecture, featuring Dan Hicks, who will speak on The Decade of Returns: Museum Curation after the "Universal Museum." As museums around the world begin to transfer ownership and make returns of looted African cultural heritage, what does this mean for museums in Europe and North America?
In conjunction with the exhibition Oletha DeVane: Spectrum of Light and Spirit, on display through December 17, the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture presents an activation of a large-scale carved sculpture, Nkisi Woman-Universal Nkisi (2021–22). During the event, visitors will be invited to add beads to the sculpture's surface.
The Candlelight Concert Society presents pianist Marc-André Hamelin, “a performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” (The New York Times), in a program of works by Beethoven and Fauré, and a composition of his own.
The Department of Music presents the UMBC Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Matthew Belzer. Strange things are afoot with the Jazz Ensemble — come spend the afternoon with them performing an All-Halloween Themed Live (or undead) Show!
The Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery presents the exhibition Sonya Clark: Hair/Craft, on display from October 31 through March 12. Clark's multidisciplinary work explores issues of identity, race, cultural heritage, and collective memory. This exhibition presents five works in which Clark applies fiber-art techniques to the medium of hair, a material laden with cultural and metaphorical significance.
The Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery presents the exhibition Aaron Siskind: Formations, on display from October 31 through March 12. Aaron Siskind (1903–1991) was one of the most influential figures in the development of photography as an art form during the twentieth century. This exhibition, drawn from UMBC’s Photography Collections, traces the formation of this artist’s unique photographic vision from early documentary works made in Harlem as a member of the New York Film and Photo League in the 1930s to his breakthrough explorations of abstraction in the 1940s and 1950s, which led to a sustained investigation of the camera’s capacity to frame new visual forms.
Written in 1956, Alice Childress's pioneering play, Trouble in Mind, shined a light on the lack of recognition, representation, and opportunities for Black theatre artists. During a turbulent rehearsal week for a new Broadway play, leading lady Willetta Mayer resists the rampant racism of the entertainment industry. No less relevant today, the play is a brisk, entertaining drama told with humor and pathos.
The Humanities Forum presents the annual Daphne Harrison Lecture, featuring Sonya Clark, who will speak in conjunction with Hair/Craft, an exhibition on display at the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery. Her talk, entitled Harmonies of Liberty, will discuss artwork inspired by the hymn "Lift Every Voice and Sing" — work that she has produced in harmony with musicians that centers collaboration, innovation, craft, and design as a means to uplift suppressed voices.
The UMBC Percussion Ensemble, directed by Tom Goldstein, joins forces with the Salisbury University Percussion Ensemble, directed by Eric Shuster, for an afternoon of music.
The Baltimore Classical Guitar Society presents Andrea Gonzalez and Grisha Goryachev, each of whom will perform a series of solo works for classical guitar.
The Department of Africana Studies, the Humanities Forum, and the Social Sciences Forum present the 44th Annual W.E.B. Du Bois Lecture, featuring two keynote speakers: Christel N. Temple, who will speak on Cultural Memory and Mythology: Africana Agency in the Face of Exile, and Donald G. Murray, Jr., who will speak on Africana Studies: Creating a Program Space and Place at UMBC and the Greater Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Communities. This event also celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Africana Studies at UMBC.
The Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents Skawennati, who investigates history, the future, and change from her perspective as an urban Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) woman and as a cyberpunk avatar. Her early adoption of cyberspace as both a location and a medium for her practice has produced groundbreaking projects such as CyberPowWow and TimeTraveller. She creates machinimas—movies made in virtual environments—as well as still images, textiles and sculpture.
The Department of Music presents the Salon Trio, featuring clarinetist Robert DiLutis, saxophonist Noah Getz, and pianist Mary-Victoria Voutsas. Their program, entitled Influential Voices, explores the often-neglected chamber music of Black composers who helped to forge a path for future generations, including works by William Grant Still, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Yusef Lateef.
The Department of Music presents Balance Campaign, a contemporary classical ensemble dedicated to commissioning and performing new works by underrepresented women, LGBTQ+, and minority composers, as well as composers with connections to the ensemble's home in the Washington, D.C. area. The ensemble's performance will feature works by Alyssa Weinburg and Christopher Cerrone, and works by three UMBC student composers.
