Feb. 6
Working Writers Panel: Juliana Delgado Lopera & Mg Roberts @ Mills Hall Living Room, 5:30–6:30 p.m. How do working writers balance their creative lives with teaching, community arts programming, editing and more? Lopera is a Colombian writer and oral historian based in San Francisco and the author of ¡Cuéntamelo! an illustrated bilingual collection of oral histories by LGBT Latinx immigrants and Quiéreme. Find more about Lopera at julianadlopera.com. Roberts is an Oakland-based poet, teaches in the Bay Area and is the author of the poetry book “Anemal, Uter Mek” published in 2017. Find more about Roberts at blackradishbooks.com.
Feb. 7
West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange: Waving to our Ancestors @ Mills Hall Living Room. Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. FREE. Poets from Mills College, the Oakland community, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire (via Skype) will create poetic contact between West Africa and West Oakland. The artists will share poetry that discusses race, class, love and identity, and demonstrate the healing and empowering effects of writing in the Griot tradition (West African oral tradition of storytelling, history, music, praise and/or poetry).
Feb. 9
Composer-in-residence lecture: Ashley Fure @ Littlefield Concert Hall. Friday, noon. FREE and open to the public. Fure is Mills’ current Jean Macduff Vaux Composer-in-Residence and will give a free talk about her work, which the New York Times has called “raw, elemental,” and “richly satisfying.” Visit “Ashley Fure Lecture” on Facebook for more info.
Feb. 10
Arts Open House @ Ensemble Room in Littlefield Concert Hall. Saturday, noon–2:00 p.m. FREE. For prospective students interested in Music, Dance, Creative Writing and Literature, Studio Art and Book Art programs at Mills College. A panel of students will talk about why they chose Mills to earn their MFA degrees, plus a mixer with staff, students and faculty, performances and a tour of the Music and Art departments. Register for the event at admissions.mills.edu/register and search “Arts Open House.”
Feb. 10
Ashley Fure in Concert @ Littlefield Concert Hall. Saturday, 8:00 p.m. $10 for Mills students, $15 for the public. Performers are Amaranth Quartet, cellist Crystal Pascucci and percussionist William Winant. Ashley Fure, the current Jean Macduff Vaux Composer-in-Residence, is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic concert music as well as intermedia art. Her work explores the kinetic source of sound, bringing focus to the muscular act of music making and the vital behaviors of raw acoustic matter. Visit musicnow.mills.edu for more info.
Feb. 10
Crazy Shade of Winter: Poetry, Weirdo Drag, Lit @ E.M. Wolfman Small Bookstore (also home to Unity Queer Skateboarding) at 410 13th St, Oakland, 7–8:30 p.m. FREE and open to the public. Mills Alumni Abbie Jeanne Amadio and Rex Renee Leonowitch host a night of storytelling, poetry, weirdo tragicomic drag and then some. Check out Leonowitch’s work at rexylafemme.tumblr.com and check out Amadio’s work at mediumfun.squarespace.com.
Feb. 12
Insta-Brunch! @ Cyclone Commuter Hub in Rothwell 156, 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. Grads, commuters and first gen students welcome to join for brunch and a photo booth. Plus gift packs of instant food to help you survive the semester!
Songlines Series: Joel Davel in “Control Freak: Don Buchla’s Approach to Performance Instruments” @ Music Building Ensemble Room. Monday at 7:30–9:30 p.m. FREE. Composer and percussionist Joel Davel worked under inventor Don Buchla for 22 years and has created and performed pieces for the dance company dNaga. He holds an MFA in Electronic Music composition from Mills College.
Feb. 14
Contemporary Writers Series: Charlotte Biltekoff @ Mills Hall Living Room. Wednesday at 5:30–7:00 p.m. FREE and open to the public. Charlotte Biltekoff is the author of “Eating Right in America: The Cultural Politics of Food and Health” and associate professor of American studies and food science and technology at UC Davis. Her book analyzes the social and cultural aspects of diet advice and the fluid definition of “eating right.”
Feb. 16
COLLECTIVE 2018 Submission Deadline. FREE and open to Mills students. COLLECTIVE is an art show designated to exhibit art created by students of color. Student artists of color are welcome to email files including an art piece, its title and your name to the both organizers anortiz@mills.edu AND kfunes@mills.edu for consideration. Multiple submissions and ALL types of work are allowed. Email for more information.
Feb. 16
Black & White Ball “Galaxy Gala” @ Chabot Space and Science Center. 9 p.m.–midnight. Purchase tickets to the annual Black and White Ball at tinyurl.com-mills-bw-ball. Tickets $10, transportation $5. Hosted by The Center. For info and dietary concerns, contact thecenter@mills.edu.
Feb. 21
Curator Lecture: Shoair Mavlian @ Danforth Lecture Hall, 7–8 p.m. Mavlian spent 2011 to 2018 as an assistant curator at Tate Modern Museum of London whose primary focus was photography, until leaving this year to become the new director of Photoworks, a British photography development agency. Check out her Instagram @shoair_m.
March 8–11
Signal Flow Music Festival @ Mills College, various locations and times. FREE and open to the public. Annual four-day festival of new experiments in creative music and sound art. Entirely organized by grad students of the Mills music department. Featuring second-year grads in the Littlefield Concert Hall and several installations around campus. More information (lineup, locations and listen to the 2018 compilation!) at www.signal-flow.org. Support the festival by purchasing the compilation on Bandcamp for $10.
Through March 11
Jennifer Brandon and Jay DeFeo: Photographic Works @ Mills College Art Museum. Open Tues. 11 a.m.–4 p.m., Wed. 11 a.m.–7:30 p.m., Thurs.–Sun. 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Closed Mondays. FREE. The show features new photographs from San Francisco-based artist Jennifer Brandon, who is a teacher at Mills, and rarely-seen experimental photography by Jay DeFeo (1929-1989), who was a tenured faculty member at Mills College from 1981 to 1989, had a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 2012 and was a pivotal figure in the San Francisco Beat community. For information visit mcam.mills.edu or call (510) 430-2164 or email museum@mills.edu.
