• Zellerbach Hall

Press Room: Illuminations

Cal Performances’ Illuminations series invites the public into the heart of the groundbreaking scholarship and research work for which UC Berkeley is known throughout the world. Featuring performances, discussions, and public programs created in collaboration with campus partners, the series harnesses the power of the performing arts to explore questions that have the power to transform our understanding of the world and shape the future. Illuminations aims to bring together a diverse community—longtime Cal Performances patrons, first-time visitors, academics and teachers, students, visiting artists, and members of the wider public—and to present events that pull back the curtain to reveal the dynamic relationship between cutting-edge thinking on campus and the world beyond. The 2021/22 season’s Illuminations programming explores issues of “Place and Displacement”.

Place and Displacement: Overview
The composers, performers, and collaborating artists in this series have each been touched by the fraught and often devastating effects of migration, exile, dislocation, and separation, on both hyper-local and international scales. In expansive presentations, they revisit the Great Migration of Black Americans, the African slave trade, the US-Cuba embargo, the cultural fallout of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, and urban gentrification in American cities today. Their works profoundly and personally explore both loss and renewal, disempowerment and hope, and seek paths forward for reclaiming and celebrating the vital cultural connections that can fall victim to political and social upheaval.

Place and Displacement: Partnerships
Lead support for Illuminations is provided by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation—empowering world-changing work. UC Berkeley partners include Goldman School’s Center for Security in Politics and the Institute of International Studies.

Place and Displacement: Related Events
Additional details regarding Illuminations related public events will be announced throughout the season. For more information, visit calperformances.org/illuminations/.

Place and Displacement: Performances >