Theme Guides to selected programs from the Spring 2017 Visions & Voices program were created in partnership with USC Libraries faculty and staff. Look for recommended books and readings on the people, performances and topics covered by these events. Visit the current season of: USC Visions and Voices Photo: Thomas Wolf (Der Wolf im Wald): Purple Crocuses in March CC BY-SA 3.0 Addiction in America (Theme Guide PDF) January 18, 2017: The Big Lie: American Addict 2, film by director Sasha Knezev and physician and executive producer Gregory A. Smith. January 24, 2017: The Provost’s Series on Wicked Problems featuring Dana Goldman, Sasha Knezev, Dr. Gregory A. Smith, and Avelardo Valdez.Additional topics in guide: Opioid epidemic, war on drugs, substance abuse, addiction; USC Libraries contributor: Zoe Pettway Unno.V&V event information (1/18 event), V&V event information (1/24 event). Forging "The Knife": Kurt Weill Before Broadway (Theme Guide PDF) January 19, 2017 Composer Kurt Weill (“Mack the Knife,” “Moon of Alabama”) is presented in an evening of performance and conversation with violin virtuoso and humanitarian Daniel Hope and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) music director Jeffrey Kahane.Additional topics in guide: Weill, Weimar Republic, Nazi's and the LACO; USC Libraries contributor: Andrew Justice.V&V event information I’m Still Here, Still: A Performance by Alexandra Billings (Theme Guide PDF) January 26, 2017 Cabaret show about moving forward while finding stillness by Alexandra Billings.Additional topics in guide: GLAAD (originally the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), timeline of trans-culture, and transgender issues; USC Libraries contributor: Andrew Justice.V&V event information Los Angeles Philharmonic: Romeo and Juliet with Dudamel (Theme Guide PDF) February 2, 2014 ustavo Dudamel conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic with violinist Lisa Batiashvili in Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev selections, plus Alfred Schnittke’s (K)ein Sommernachtstraum.Additional topics in guide: Walt Disney Concert Hall; USC Libraries contributors: Melissa Miller, Ross Scimeca.V&V event information Non-Fiction (Theme Guide PDF) February 4, 2017 Art exhibition at the Underground Museum investigating either explicitly or implicitly, the culture of violence perpetrated on black citizens. introducing artists Theaster Gates, Robert Gober, David Hammons, Deana Lawson, Kerry James Marshall, Marion Palifi, Henry Taylor, and Kara Walker.Additional topic in guide: Fugitive art; USC Libraries contributor: Stacy Williams.V&V event information 500 Years of Utopia (Online Theme Guide: Research Guide) / (Theme Guide: Research Guide - PDF) February 7, 2017: Utopian Representations Last in a series of presentations that looks at both promised lands/perfect societies and polluted lands/failed societies and celebrates Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. Introduction to the Utopia Exhibition.Additional topics in guide: Dystopia, Tyson Gaskill, Geoff Manaugh, David Mellen Design, Heather Duncan, Patty Johnson, Nathan Masters, Hugh McHarg, Howard Smith, Tim Stanton; Guide Creator: Anne-Marie MaxwellV&V event information Free Outgoing (Theme Guide PDF) February 16, 2017 Written by Anupama Chandrasekhar and directed by Snehal Desai, this play focuses on the collision of modern technology and old-world values set in a middle-class home in Chennai, India.Additional topics in guide: East West Players, L.A.’s Little Tokyo, social media, cyberbullying, and slut-shaming; USC Libraries contributor: Anthony Anderson.V&V event information Wendy Whelan / Brian Brooks / Brooklyn Rider - Some of a Thousand Words (Theme Guide PDF) February 21, 2017 Dancer Wendy Whelan with choreographer and director Brian Brooks perform First Fall along with their new work, with the music of Brooklyn Rider (Johnny Gandelsman, Colin Jacobsen, Nicholas Cords, and Michael Nicolas)Additional topics in guide: Contemporary dance and ballet; USC Libraries contributor: Andrew Justice.V&V event information Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca: Antigona (Theme Guide PDF) March 1, 2017 Martín Santangelo’s flamenco interpretation of Sophocles’ Antigone, performed by Noche Flamenca and Soledad Barrio.Additional topics in guide: A history of flamenco from Andalucia, Spain, and additional company members: Juan Ogalla, Salva de Maria, Eugenio Iglesias, Manuel Gago, Pepe "El Bocadillo", Emilio Florido, Davide "Chupete" Rodriguez, Mariana Elana, Hamed Traore, Xianix Barrera, Angelina Ramirez, Carlos Menchaca, Robert Wilson, Jeanne D'Arc Casas, Lee Breuer, Mary Frank, S. Benjamin Farrar, Sahron Levy, Mitchell Dufanal; USC Libraries contributor: Andrew Justice.V&V event information Sound Maze (Theme Guide PDF) March 3, 2017 Improvisation with more than a dozen newly invented musical instruments in an interactive installation created by composer and instrument inventor Paul Dresher collaboration with Alex Vittum and Daniel Schmidt.Additional topics in guide: Sound and music including dynamics, melody, frequencies, rhythm, scale. and timbre; USC Libraries contributor: Andrew Justice.V&V event information Uncanny Valleys: Thinking and Feeling in the Age of Synthetic Humans (Theme Guide PDF) March 23, 2017 Panel discussion by Hiroshi Ishiguro, Yoshio Matsumoto, Travis Deyle, and Jonathan Gratch and Jessica Riskin about the future of artificial life and new pathways for human-machine interactions.Additional topics in guide: Human-like robots in historical perspective, Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics, and the USC Institute for Creative Technologies; USC Libraries contributors: Anne-Marie Maxwell, Melissa Miller.V&V event information Fun Home (Theme Guide PDF) March 25, 2017 Tony Award–winning Broadway musical based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel centered around a young lesbian. Score by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by Lisa Kron.Additional topics in guide:Bechdel test, queer culture, Center Theater Group, and the Ahmanson Theater; USC Libraries contributor: Loni Shubuyama.V&V event information Latent Memory: Present Visions of Latin American Political Past (Theme Guide PDF) March 31, 2017 A screening of short animated films by artists: Patricio Plaza, Carlos Gomez, Salamanca, Juan Camilo González, and Simón Wilches-Castro.Additional topics in guide: Post-colonial histories and U.S. support of authoritarian regimes, mano dura, dictatorship, right- and left-wing politics; USC Libraries contributors: Robert V. Labraree, Barbara Robinson.V&V event information Doctors’ Orders for a Good Death: Caitlin Doughty and Lindsey Fitzharris (Theme Guide PDF) April 6, 2017 Discussion with mortician Caitlin Doughty and medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris, moderated by Megan Rosenbloom.Additional topics in guide: Culture and religion related to death and the death-care movement; USC Libraries contributor: Zoe Pettway Unno.V&V event information The Hotel Play (Theme Guide PDF) April 15, 2017 Conceived by Jon Lawrence Rivera and written by Paula Cizmar, Velina Hasu Houston, Jennifer Maisel, Nahal Navidar, Julie Taiwo Oni, Janine Salinas Schoenberg, and Laurie Woolery about the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles - 25 years later.Additional topics in guide: Rodney King, South L.A., Watts, language (riot, rebellion, uprising), and the Playwright's arena; USC Libraries contributor: Anthony Anderson.V&V event information