Welcome to Books of the Month, where once a month, L&S staff select works from our Bookshelf of authors within the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis. This month, in honor of the Taproot New Music Festival, we explore music from around the world. Through ethnographies, essays and analyses, our scholars demonstrate how music, culture and politics influence one another.
Hinduism’s Diwali, or “Festival of Lights,” is California’s newest state holiday. Scholars from the Department of Religion, Culture and Society in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis explain its significance.
Composers and musicians will come together this fall to build community and experiment with new sounds at the Taproot New Music Festival at UC Davis. Curator Sam Nichols says “there is a sense of adventure” to the festival, which promises to provide audiences with a sense of what is happening now in the genre. The first concert kicks off Oct. 25, followed by a full weekend of events Nov. 6 - 9, 2025.
Created and curated by graduate student Emily Tonnos, "Embodiment" explores the intersectionality of exhibition, theatrical and narrative design practices to create an immersive experience through human emotion, multisensory perception, and a journey through personal struggle and growth. It opens at the UC Davis Design Museum on Oct. 8.
Seongmin Yoo has been working with the Davis Mural Team for the last three years and has helped paint five different murals downtown. She is passionate about helping the local art scene thrive. Her latest effort welcomes residents, visitors and passersby into the city as they travel along I-80 through Davis. Featuring blue skies, green pastures, and some of the city’s most iconic imagery, Yoo’s “Welcome to Davis” mural is a celebration of art, agriculture and education.
Two exhibitions that invite visitors to reflect on the present by considering the past and our shared future are on view this fall at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at University of California, Davis. The exhibitions are on view through Nov. 29.
The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies will bring Sacramento-based fiber artist Josh Faught and Los Angeles based curator Anne Ellegood to give free, public talks on campus at UC Davis in October.
The Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis has announced two new, timely exhibits opening along with the museum on Aug. 7. “OJO” and Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice will be on display until Dec. 1.
Before joining the Department of English at UC Davis last fall, Cindy Juyoung Ok was already making waves with her newly published poetry collection, "Ward Toward." She spoke with L&S Magazine to discuss the experimental work and her decision to leave teaching to pursue her writing.
Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Charlie Hankin spent years studying rap music and community in Brazil, Cuba and Haiti. That research culminated into the award-winning book, "Break and Flow: Hip Hop Poetics in the Americas." He also became an unlikely collaborator with some local musicians he was working with.
