Arts & Events

By Brynn Svenningsen CW: Discussion of childhood sexual abuse  “Art is where we go when language fails us and art is where we are able to make connections with one another in a world that is so determined to keep us separated,” gender non-binary poet and performance artist Alok Vaid-Menon said. A performance duo Vaid-Menon was involved with, Dark Matter, stirred controversy over problematic statements made on the group’s social media regarding childhood sexual abuse, which many viewed as victim-blaming in nature. According to Vaid-Menon, the statements were made by...

By Matthew Gulick Last weekend, Bare Bones Theatre Collective put on Town Crier Speaks Festival XVI, a series of student-written and student-directed one-act plays. This year’s festival ran the emotional gamut. From criticisms of religious tradition to a comedic dramatization of soda brand rivalry, from the AIDS epidemic to comatose loved ones, Town Crier alternated between heavy subject matter and lighthearted puns. Entirely student-driven, The Bare Bones Theatre Collective produces two festivals a year, Town Crier in the fall and Plays Against Humanity in the spring. The collective also supports...

By Brynn Svenningsen “This song is about being falsely accused of something and a long time later getting revenge,” singer Travis Barker said as he grabbed his guitar and started to play an original folk song. Barker, a member of the band Elk & Boar,  gathered along with many other Tacoma artisans and musicians on Oct. 4 at Kaleidoscope, the opening party for Tacoma Arts Month. Tacoma Arts Month is an event that focuses on highlighting the art culture in Tacoma and getting the community involved in it. The event...

By Brynn Svenningsen Remember how Bill Nye made you interested in science when you were a kid? Surely any of you science majors can give him some credit.  Well it’s time to forget about Bill Nye as he was, because in David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg’s new documentary “Bill Nye: The Science Guy,” there is a new Bill to be discovered. The film will be opening the 12th annual Tacoma Film Festival this year. “Bill Nye” focuses on Nye’s movement from a children’s television host to an activist against global...

By Arcelia Salado Alvarado Zhi Lin’s name is in the entryway for the exhibit at the Tacoma Art Museum. Painted in broad strokes, the bright Chinese characters are fitting for a man who is trying to shine the spotlight on people who were left anonymous for so long. “Between 1865 and 1869, thousands of Chinese migrants toiled at a grueling pace and in perilous working conditions to help construct America’s first Transcontinental Railroad,” Stanford’s Chinese Railroad Workers in North America said. Anywhere between 50 to 1,200 immigrants may have died...