Bay Area Premiere

The formidable Brooklyn-based performance ensemble Urban Bush Women visits with Hair & Other Stories, a full-length dance-theater work exploring race, identity, and concepts of beauty through the lens of Black women’s hair. Inspired by founder and 2021 MacArthur Fellow Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s HairStories (2001), the participatory performance is a work of activism, awakening, and engagement, asking the audience to move, to comment, to reflect, and to bear witness. Choreographed and directed by co-artistic directors Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis, Hair & Other Stories was developed from personal narratives gathered from participants at “Hair Party” sessions the company held with women across the country, as well as through the company’s ongoing collaboration with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s “Undoing Racism” workshops. “The Urban Bush Women are committed, triple-threat performers who dance, sing, and act with a sometimes searing sense of truthfulness” (The New York Times).

Run time for this performance is approximately 2 hours 30 minutes including intermission. 

This event is part of Cal Performances’ Illuminations: “Individual & Community” programming for the 2023–24 season.

Post-performance Community Conversations
Dates: December 1, 2 and 3, 2023
Time: After the Performance
Location: Zellerbach Playhouse Auditorium (updated location) on December 1; Zellerbach Playhouse Lobby on December 2 and 3
Moderators: Members of Urban Bush Women (Dec. 1); and Mina Girgis, Cal Performances’ Director of Education, Campus, and Community Engagement (Dec. 2 and 3)

Immediately following each performance of Hair & Other Stories, all attendees are invited to join us in the Zellerbach Playhouse lobby to discuss and react to the performance in community with fellow audience members. This moderated conversation will offer the opportunity to collectively unpack the questions, emotions, and revelations you might carry following the performance, in an open and participatory format.

Parking Alert

Parking will be a problem on campus for this performance on December 2 due to a Cal Men’s Basketball game versus Santa Clara.

Most, if not all, University parking lots will be reserved for game patrons and city-owned lots may have a limited number of spots available. Traffic will be heavy. We advise you to arrive early and to seriously consider alternative transportation.

Please see our Parking Alert section for more information.