February 2017
Wendy Whelan / Brian Brooks / Brooklyn Rider in Some of a Thousand Words
Wendy Whelan, who spent 30 years with the New York City Ballet, is widely considered one of the world’s leading dancers. Brian Brooks is an award-winning choreographer and director of the acclaimed Brian Brooks Moving Company. They will come together to perform their tour-de-force duet First Fall along with luminous new work they have created with string quartet Brooklyn Rider, “one of the wonders of contemporary music” (Los Angeles Times). The stunning First Fall bears testament to Whelan and Brooks’…
Find out more »March 2017
Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca: Antigona
“Never, until I saw Santangelo’s ensemble, their heels stamping, their arms cutting through the air, had I seen a chorus whose physical force could support the fate-heavy songs that Sophocles wrote for his plays. As for Barrio, though she spoke rarely, dancing seemed better than words: no rhetoric, no explanations, but just passion, majesty, absorption.” —The New Yorker Don’t miss Antigona, Martín Santangelo’s stunning flamenco interpretation of Sophocles’ Antigone, performed by Noche Flamenca and starring flamenco superstar Soledad Barrio as…
Find out more »September 2017
Ballet BC
“Entertaining and brilliantly executed.” —The Ottawa Citizen Encounter the ballet of today in an evening of bold and innovative performances by Ballet BC, the internationally acclaimed contemporary ballet company based out of Vancouver and led by Artistic Director Emily Molnar. Founded in 1986, Ballet BC is a leader in contemporary dance in Canada and is renowned worldwide as a hotbed for the creation and performance of exciting new choreography. Performing a diverse repertoire of works by Canadian and international choreographers of the late…
Find out more »Three Laureates: Poets of the New California
U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia, and Los Angeles Poet Laureate Robin Coste Lewis come together on the Bovard stage for a reading and discussion about poetry and the role of place—in particular, the many places of California—in their creative work. The son of farmworkers, Herrera spent his early years living from crop to crop in California’s San Joaquin and Salinas valleys, went to high school in San Diego, attended college at UCLA during the Chicano movement, and now…
Find out more »October 2017
Tom Hanks In Conversation With David Greene
This October, catch NPR host David Greene in conversation with Tom Hanks about Uncommon Type: Some Stories, the two-time Academy Award winner’s first work of fiction. Public radio, book and film fans can see the two on stage in Los Angeles on October 23. Tickets for the event at the Bovard Auditorium, put on in partnership with KCRW and KPCC, are on sale now via NPRpresents.org. Select tickets include a signed copy of the book.
Find out more »February 2018
Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip
Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip A Performance by Lucky Plush Productions A Visions and Voices Signature Event ADMISSION: Admission is free. Reservations required. RSVP beginning Wednesday, January 10, at 9 a.m. USC Students, Staff, and Faculty: RSVP USC Alumni: RSVP General Public: RSVP DESCRIPTION: Washed-up superheroes start a nonprofit think tank in a wildly funny and fresh performance by Chicago’s Lucky Plush Productions. Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip seamlessly weaves comic-book graphics, sound effects, and immersive video into an evening…
Find out more »March 2018
ARTIVISTAS: A Concert Inspiring Resistance, Empowerment, and Social Change
ARTIVISTAS: A Concert Inspiring Resistance, Empowerment, and Social Change A Visions and Voices Signature Event ADMISSION: Admission is free. Reservations required. RSVP beginning Tuesday, January 30, at 9 a.m. USC Students, Staff, and Faculty: RSVP USC Alumni: RSVP General Public: RSVP DESCRIPTION: “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.”—Emma Goldman Join us for an unforgettable evening of performances by artivistas—women artist/activists of color—who inspire and embody resistance, empowerment, and the fight for social justice in their poetry,…
Find out more »RUBBERBANDance
RUBBERBANDance A Visions and Voices Signature Event ADMISSION: Admission is free. Reservations required. RSVP beginning Wednesday, February 14, at 9 a.m. USC Students, Staff, and Faculty: RSVP USC Alumni: RSVP General Public: RSVP DESCRIPTION: “The top-class dancers are powerful and magnetic . . . is cool, magnificent, and intense, great entertainment not only for dance fans but for anyone who loves to be excited.”—Phindie Combine the spontaneity, fearlessness, and risk-taking of hip hop with the refinement and choreographic maturity of ballet, and you’ve…
Find out more »Beethoven’s 9th: The USC Thornton Symphony and USC Thornton Choral Artists
Beethoven’s 9th: The USC Thornton Symphony and USC Thornton Choral Artists Friday, March 30, 2018 at 7:30pm Bovard Auditorium (ADM) 3551 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089 ADMISSION: Admission is free. Reservations required. RSVP beginning Tuesday, March 6, at 9 a.m. USC Students, Staff, and Faculty: RSVP USC Alumni: RSVP General Public: RSVP DESCRIPTION: The USC Thornton Symphony and USC Thornton Choral Artists join forces to perform one of the great masterworks of late Classical music, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125.…
Find out more »April 2018
Considering Matthew Shepard: A Chamber Music Performance
DESCRIPTION: In 1998, a college student named Matthew Shepard was beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die in a Wyoming field because he was gay. His murder brought international attention to hate-crimes legislation and violence perpetrated against the LGBTQ community. Shepard’s life and legacy are remembered in Considering Matthew Shepard, the new passion/oratorio by Craig Hella Johnson, one of today’s most influential voices in choral conducting. This exquisite and moving chamber work, performed by the USC Thornton Chamber Singers, soloists, and instrumentalists, reminds…
Find out more »September 2018
CONTRA-TIEMPO – joyUS justUS
USC Visions and Voices cordially invites you to celebrate the beginning of our 2018-19 season with joyUS justUS, a world-premiere performance by Los Angeles–based urban Latin dance-theatre company CONTRA-TIEMPO. joyUS justUS gathers, embodies, and shares stories of joy from South L.A. communities of color. With technical rigor and transformative vision, CONTRA-TIEMPO has collaborated with Las Cafeteras, d. Sabela grimes, Charlese Antoinette, and Tuce Yasak to translate the real experiences of local communities into a performance that will engage audiences to tell their…
Find out more »October 2018
An Evening with Calligraffiti Artist eL Seed
He made international headlines in 2017 when he installed a piece of art at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, and the year before that when he painted an homage to garbage collectors across more than 50 buildings in Cairo. But eL Seed is not new to making images that span, cross, and bridge borders. The French-Tunisian artist’s form itself is a bridge between the traditional art of calligraphy and the contemporary language of graffiti. Inspired by the Arab Spring…
Find out more »Xiuhtezcatl Martinez: At the Forefront of Climate Change
“The most important thing we can do is change . . . the way we’re talking about climate change. It’s not a left liberal partisan environmental problem. It’s a human issue, it’s a human crisis. It involves and connects every person on this planet.”—Xiuhtezcatl Martinez in Rolling Stone Join us for an evening with Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, an eighteen-year-old indigenous climate activist, hip hop artist, and voice from the front lines of a global youth-led environmental movement. Currently the youth director of Earth Guardians,…
Find out more »January 2019
An Evening with Isabella Rossellini
Actor, model, filmmaker, and philanthropist Isabella Rossellini was born to film royalty—her parents are Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini—and has created a life for herself that is perhaps richer and more varied than any film. She has been the face of Lancôme; acted in landmark roles (see David Lynch’s Blue Velvet); created Green Porno, a wacky and wonderful web series about animal behavior; and is the author of a new book, My Chickens and I, about raising chickens on her Long Island farm—among many other…
Find out more »September 2019
Perla Batalla in the House of Cohen
Perla Batalla in the House of Cohen FREE September 21, 2019 • 7:00 pm Bovard Auditorium USC 3551 Trousdale Pkwy Los Angeles, 90089 Join us on Leonard Cohen’s birthday for a breathtaking concert featuring Grammy-nominated singer and former Cohen band member Perla Batalla. Accompanied by a full band, Batalla will celebrate the timelessness of her friend and mentor’s art, music, and poetry. http://visionsandvoices.usc.edu/eventdetails/?event_id=30275511558180
Find out more »October 2019
An Evening with Doug Aitken
An Evening with Doug Aitken FREE October 23, 2019 • 7:00 pm Bovard Auditorium USC 3551 Trousdale Pkwy Los Angeles, 90089 Doug Aitken defies definitions of genre and explores every medium, from film and installations to architectural interventions. Utilizing a wide array of artistic approaches, Aitken leads us into a world where time, space, and memory are fluid concepts. The Los Angeles–based artist and filmmaker’s career-spanning, multimedia presentation will touch on architecture, art, public space, the environment, and more. …
Find out more »November 2019
Black Grace
Black Grace FREE November 11, 2019 • 7:30 pm Bovard Auditorium USC 3551 Trousdale Pkwy Los Angeles, 90089 Don’t miss this rare and intimate Los Angeles appearance by Black Grace. Founded by Artistic Director Neil Ieremia in 1995, drawing from his Samoan and New Zealand roots to create innovative dance works that reach across social, cultural, and generational barriers, the choreography is highly physical, rich in the storytelling traditions of the South Pacific, and expressed with raw finesse, unique beauty, and…
Find out more »Shanghai Jazz
Shanghai Jazz FREE November 19, 2019 • 7:30 pm Bovard Auditorium USC 3551 Trousdale Pkwy Los Angeles, 90089 In 1935, Los Angeles–based musician Buck Clayton formed a jazz band called Harlem Gentlemen to perform in Shanghai. Li Jinhui, who is considered the father of Chinese popular music, had been performing in the “Paris of the East” for years when Clayton and his colleagues arrived. Clayton and Li eventually worked together to form a new and unique blend of American jazz…
Find out more »January 2020
The Life and Afterlife of Eurydice (and Orpheus) in Opera
The Life and Afterlife of Eurydice (and Orpheus) in Opera A Visions and Voices Signature Event Presented with LA Opera ADMISSION: Admission is free. Reservations required. RSVP beginning Thursday, December 12, at 9 a.m. RSVP DESCRIPTION: In anticipation of the world premiere of Eurydice at LA Opera, composer/conductor Matthew Aucoin and playwright Sarah Ruhl will be joined by UCLA professor Kenneth Reinhard and singers from LA Opera’s Young Artist Program for an evening of musical performance and conversation. The event will explore the original and ongoing role of the myth of…
Find out more »September 2022
Monica Bill Barnes & Company: The Running Show
“Full-throttle, humor-infused dance-theater.”—Dance Magazine “Think of Buster Keaton in Vegas… unapologetically human and refreshingly relatable.”––The New York Times Presenting the life of a dancer through movement, interviews, and stories, each production of The Running Show is as exhilarating and entertaining as it is intimate and unique. Providing an unprecedented look into the life of a dancer as a new kind of sports hero who keeps moving against all odds and recruiting local dancers to join the cast and share their stories,…
Find out more »October 2022
Lido Pimienta in Concert
“On one level, Pimienta is recollecting intimate relationships; on another, she’s calling entire countries to task for their failure to protect black and brown women.”—Pitchfork Don’t miss a concert and conversation with the Colombian-born, Toronto-based, cumbia diva diva who was “born to transcend borders, sounds, and industry conventions” (Remezcla). This special event is presented in conjunction with “Mass Violence and Its Lasting Impact on Indigenous People: The Case of the Americas and Australia/Pacific Region,” a conference presented by the USC Dornsife Center…
Find out more »November 2022
An Evening with Natasha Trethewey
“Trethewey’s verse is as accessible as it is brilliant.”—Washington Post “One of the most important American poets of our time.”—Paris Review Join us for a reading with Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey, two-time U.S. poet laureate and author of the New York Times best seller Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir. Following the reading, Trethewey will participate in a conversation with esteemed novelist, essayist, and USC English professor Danzy Senna.
Find out more »Dahlak Brathwaite: Try/Step/Trip
“The epitome of ‘def’ poetry.”—Mos Def Try/Step/Trip is a spoken word, multi-character musical performed through the language of step dance. Inspired by writer/composer Dahlak Brathwaite’s own history, the theatrical piece powerfully blurs the lines between dramatic performance, hip hop, art, and life as it explores racism, addiction, and the criminal justice system.
Find out more »January 2023
Gibney Company
Founded by choreographer Gina Gibney in 1991, the New York City–based Gibney Company works with renowned and rising international choreographers representing a broad range of aesthetics and techniques. Tapping into the vast potential of movement, creativity, and performance to effect social change and personal transformation, Gibney advocates for issues such as diversity, mental health, and economic empowerment in the dance field with the aim of redefining what it means to be a 21st-century contemporary dance company. Gibney’s dancers, who have expanded and vital roles…
Find out more »June 2023
Swallow THIS: A Documentary About Methadone and COVID-19
You are invited to a very special film screening of “Swallow THIS: A Documentary About Methadone and COVID-19”. Thursday, June 1, 2023 5:00pm – 7:00pm PDT (Doors open at 4:30pm) USC Bovard Auditorium 3551 Trousdale Pkwy. Los Angeles, CA (Free parking provided in the McCarthy Structure) Please join USC Institute for Addiction Science, UCLA’s Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine (CBAM), and directors – Marilena Marchetti and Helen Redmond – for this special event! This 30-minute…
Find out more »December 2023
The Upcycled Self: An Evening with Black Thought from The Roots
Tariq Trotter—better known as Black Thought—is the platinum-selling, Grammy-winning co-founder of The Roots, and one of the most exhilaratingly skillful and profound rappers the culture has ever produced. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop and Trotter’s brand-new book, The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are (November 2023), Trotter will discuss his life and work in an intimate conversation with Jason King, Dean of the USC Thornton School of Music. In The Upcycled Self, Trotter explores the four…
Find out more »February 2024
waheedworks: Bodies as Site of Faith and Protest
“A gift of hopefulness and a reminder of the power achievable through unification.”—The Dance Enthusiast WEST COAST PREMIERE! Partially set to speeches from the Civil Rights Movement including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “We Shall Overcome,” the newest work by waheedworks beautifully and powerfully explores the idea of bodies uniting in protest, carrying on the Philadephia-based company’s mission of creating a radically collaborative body of work that speaks to human life.
Find out more »