‘After Midnight’ makes you feel as if you were living in Harlem during the 30s. BY VANESSA

Consider all the terrible things that happen at night: Mrs. Schachter has her visions of fire, hell, and death; Eliezer and his father arrive at Auschwitz and see the smokestacks and wait in line all night long with the smell of “Burning flesh” in their noses; there is the night the soup tasted like corpses; they march through long nights and, Eliezer’s father dies during the nighttime. “The days were like night, and the nights were left the dregs of their darkness in our souls.” Night is a metaphor for the way the soul was submerged in suffering and

Another reference to night is the night before the family is taken to the ghetto, Eliezer explains, “Night. No one prayed, so that the night would pass quickly. The stars were only sparks of the fire, which devoured us. Should that fire die out one day, there would be nothing left

The play that I went to see was Beautiful: The Carol King Musical. I attended opening night of this play on Tuesday, February 21st of this year. This musical is about the true and remarkable story of her uprising career. Carol started off as a song writer when she was only a teen writing with her future husband, Gerry Goffin. The play is about an extraordinary person who battles everyday issues, but ultimately overcomes the odds and adversities thrown at her. With her talent in music and singing; Carol King went on to have one of the most successful solo acts in music history. King’s story is truly inspiring and this play attributes to her legacy not just as an artist but also a person. The play’s genre is musical theatre because singing and dancing are essential parts of the play. The director’s purpose of this play was to tell in great detail the life of American artist Carol King.

This past weekend, I experienced the University of Virginia Drama Department’s production of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars. This performance was wonderfully entertaining, and I applaud the department for choosing this play in particular to perform. Its themes, which focus on the desire to achieve success, acceptance, and a greater knowledge of ones place in the world in the face of adversity, are as relevant today as they were when Wilson first conceived this play. The plot pays special attention to the importance of race and gender in society, allowing the viewer to realize the unfortunate reality that some of the issues experienced by black men and women during the 1940s survive to this day. The devotion and commitment of the cast and crew in their attempt to fulfill Wilson’s dreams and ideas was palpable, and their energy radiated throughout the audience. Although it was a lengthy production (taking around three hours to complete), the performance seemed to keep everyone on the edges of their seats, and, at its eventual conclusion, left those in attendance yearning for more from this talented group. There were four specific elements made this production of Seven Guitars so enjoyable: its actors, costumes, varied rhythm, and video design. I would highly recommend attending this play directed by Theresa M. Davis, and eagerly await her next production.

Darkness at Noon, written by British novelist Arthur Koestler in 1940, is a criticism of Stalinism and the methods used by the Communist Party in the USSR. The novel was set in 1938 during the Stalinist Great Purge and Moscow show trials. Even though the story depicts actual occurrences, it does not specifically name either Russia or the USSR, but the characters do have Russian names while other generic terms are used to depict individuals and associations. For instance, the Soviet government is alluded to as "the Party" and Nazi Germany is alluded to as "the Dictatorship." Joseph Stalin, a terrorizing dictator, is represented by "Number One." The novel is a strong and moving picture of a Communist revolutionary caught up in the terror

Night is a recollection of Elie Wiesel’s time spent during the holocaust. It is a gripping tale of survival and death. While it is a small book, it has a huge message. During the time in which the book takes place, the Jewish people were srtripped of their humanity. Elie and his fellow inmates at Auschwitz endure dehumanization throughout starvation and on the train to Buchenwald.

Octavia Butler’s “The Evening, the Morning and the Night, delivered a hypothetical scenario of a young woman (Lynn) living with a disorder known as DGD or Dureyea- Gode Disorder, the disorder is largely hereditary and largely destructive causing people to eventually become cannibalistic and prone to self-harm.

When you hear the words “romance films”, Woody Allen instantly pops up in your mind. He is a director known for being cheesy and creative. His movies can be absolutely moving or heart-breaking. Anyways, they always have a charming touch.

Going to the jazz performance at the Bechtler showed me a different side of the community in Charlotte coming together. At the Bechtler Museum host, an annual night of jazz the theme for this performance was Jazz Night for Lovers. They had two shows, which both sold out. The line to get in was so long and full with young couples and older couples as well. Once were allow inside the venue everyone took there sits and watched as a beautiful 14-year-old girl sing her heart to the crowd. The crowd loved her and her performance. Things got even better when the jazz band got on stage and there special performer.

In Night, Elie Wiesel uses the word “night” literally to indicate nighttime and metaphorically to symbolize dark ideas such as death, evil, ruthlessness, immorality and the loss of will to live. On the eve of Rosh Hashanah Elie says that “Night was falling rapidly” (Wiesel 66). The use of “night” here two purposes; the first is to tell the time which is literal, but the metaphorical use of it expresses darkness and sorrow of the Jewish people. The end of the year deserves celebration, but that year, the Jews had no reason to celebrate. Wiesel uses “night” to imply the darkness and sorrow the Jews felt during that time. After starting to evacuate, Elie expresses his hopelessness and despair: “The gates of the camp opened. It seemed as though

The elements used in this concert were videos of a timeline of African-American dances. This was very helpful because it allowed the audience to know what time period they were looking at for a certain dance. There were different varies of costumes. There were costumes from the tribes danes, spiritual dances, 1902' dances as dancers, and etc. The dancers did an excellent job with combine the costumes to the era and it actually looked like pieces from that era. The lighting was very good and it allowed for the mood to be seen in the dances as well. When a dance needed to evoke a spiritual mood, the lighting would evoke that mood by only allowing light on the dancer and no one else. If it needed a joyful feeling, all the lights were on showing

I feel like the book Night lets off a very sad a depressing mood. The setting of this book is a various amount of concentration camps that Elie and his dad go to. The main central idea of Night is to explain the experiences in the Holocaust. I personally think that this book is a good book for young adults and not kids because it uses some language and it’s very descriptive.

The setting of “Night” is Eastern Europe and during Nazi rule between the late 1930s and the mid 1940s. Throughout the entire story it takes place in Europe but the location varies to different concentration camps around Nazi occupied Europe.

Ronald Reagan once said, “We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won.” I read the book, Dancing in the dark by Morris Dickstein. This book was about the great depression, and the impacts it had on American life. The traditional thought of poverty, people dying of hunger and people lying in the roads, has been erased. America has abolished poverty by the traditional standards but the thought of poverty and what it is has changed. In America we consider poverty to be spending all your money on bills, so you have no money left for food to feed your family. We consider poverty to be just being poor. One-Third of our population makes less than $38,000. This is not enough to be able to be above the poverty line. Anything below this

On Thursday April 25, 2013 , I attended a jazz vocal concert at the Music Concert Hall. The first vocal ensemble opened up the performance with a slow rhythmic song called Blue Skies. It began with vocals and I noticed a light auxiliary percussion and drum rhythm. Also, the bass guitarist used walking bass and the piano and electric guitar joined in as well. The first song also consisted of two soloist Regina and Chantel who took the front stage to show off their chops. After the solo performances they fell back into the vocal sections and finished off the song as a complete band. The second performance had a piano opening which led to vocals joining in at the same time as the rhythm section. This performance