Thursday, February 19

Female rapper CupcakKe announced as opener for Bruin Bash 2018

Bruin Bash has announced CupcakKe as the 2018 opener. The Cultural Affairs Commission and the Campus Events Commission took to social media Monday to inform students of the annual Bruin Bash, creating a Facebook event to share the Sept. Read more...

Photo: UCLA’s 15th annual Bruin Bash will feature opener CupcakKe. The rapper often creates music with with sexual themes and titles, such as “Deepthroat.” (Courtesy of CupCakKe)


Graduate student’s play examines privilege, brutality and enduring injustice

Cary Simowitz’s law school colleagues skipped exams to protest the 2014 Darren Wilson verdict in the streets – he wrote a play about the issue instead. Read more...

Photo: Graduate playwriting student Cary Simowitz spent a week workshopping his play “Djarum Vanilla” at the annual Kennedy Center New Play Festival. The play focuses on how the 2014 Darren Wilson verdict impacted St. Louis. (Lisa Aubry/Daily Bruin)


Alumna’s Harmony Project prepares to expand nationwide after repeated successes

A group of gang members walking through a Hollywood farmers market 21 years ago stopped to listen to a young boy playing the violin. The five-year-old violinist was the son of Margaret Martin, UCLA alumna and the founder of the Harmony Project. Read more...

Photo: Alumna Margaret Martin founded Harmony Project, which offers music lessons to at-risk youth in Los Angeles. Martin said the project has grown from only 36 students to 6,000, and has expanded beyond the city to other school districts such as Riverside. (Isa Saalabi/Daily Bruin)


Q&A: Screenwriter Eric Roth on bringing history and fiction into harmony

Eric Roth doesn’t sleep very much and whizzes through two or three books a week. The “Forrest Gump” writer and UCLA alumnus said his voracious reading is often used as precursive research to develop characters in screenplays. Read more...

Photo: Though he worked as a producer on the Emmy-nominated “The Alienist,” alumnus Eric Roth said he prefers working as a writer. He aims to remain accurate to small details when working on historical films such as the TNT drama. (Courtesy of Julia Hannafin)


Alumnus to star in unique production of musical ‘The World Goes ‘Round’

Michael Starr viewed “Gigi,” one of the original Reprise company’s final shows, as a student. Now, the alumnus will star in Reprise 2.0’s production of “The World Goes ‘Round.” Opening Sept. Read more...

Photo: Alumnus Michael Starr stars in Reprise 2.0’s production of “The World Goes ‘Round,” a musical review featuring songs by composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb, known for their musicals “Chicago” and “Cabaret.” (Courtesy of Tom Drucker)


Album review: Troye Sivan’s ‘Bloom’ trades tempo for emotional sincerity

“Bloom” foregoes the all-too-common route of modern albums only including radio-friendly, upbeat songs. Instead, Troye Sivan’s latest album features more slow-to-mid-tempo numbers than fast ones. In a time when streaming continues to grow, having a song become a radio hit is not the only successful method to reach fans, so an album filled with a mix of both slow and fast-paced songs can still connect to audiences worldwide. Read more...

Photo: (Courtesy of EMI Australia)


Alumna moves to Spain to find balance between teaching and dance

Hayley Thompson’s first dance performance was in her elementary school multipurpose room. Nearly 14 years later, she choreographed routines for high school students in the same studio. Read more...

Photo: Though she dedicated much of her time at UCLA to the ICARUS dance team and her summer to teaching at To the Pointe dance studio, alumna Hayley Thompson recently relocated to Spain to teach English. Thompson said she aims to find a career that allows her to both continue dance and pursue other passions. (Joe Akira/Daily Bruin)