Arts and Culture

Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Emmy award-winning filmmaker, historian and literary scholar, will deliver the 2019 Chancellor’s Speaker Series presentation, part of the annual UNC Charlotte Civic Series presented by Bank of America.

Three faculty members in the College of Arts + Architecture are among the winners of the inaugural “Celebrate Charlotte Arts” grants given by the Knight Foundation. Twelve grants, totaling $200,000, are designated to “fund art that captures the spirit of Charlotte.”Assistant Professor of Theatre CarlosAlexis Cruz and his urban circus project, Nouveau Sud, will receive $25,000 for “La Bestia,” a contemporary circus take on the Central American immigrant journey to the United States.

Children and their families attending the third annual Kids Fest in October will be entertained as much as they are educated with performances by groups such as UNC Charlotte’s Codachrome A Cappella and the Queen City Circus.

Julio Capó Jr., associate professor of history at Florida International University, will discuss his book “Welcome to Fairyland: Gay Miami Before 1940” at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 25, at UNC Charlotte Center City.Capó is a transnational historian whose research and teaching interests include modern U.S. history, especially the United States’ relationship to the Caribbean and Latin America. He addresses how gender and sexuality have historically intersected with constructions of ethnicity, race, class, nation, age and ability.

From the opening kickoff in exhibition football season to a sudden death playoff at the Masters, sports arguably are America’s most popular pastime, not to mention a lucrative career for elite athletes. The Personally Speaking Series kicks off its 10th season Tuesday, Sept. 24, with a hard look at the relationship between sports and religion.

UNC Charlotte’s International Festival enables the greater Charlotte community to experience cultural traditions and foods from around the world. New for this year’s 44th annual festival, Opera Carolina will perform, and the Charlotte Independence soccer team will give demonstrations.

The Department of Dance will present its annual Faculty Dance Concert Friday and Saturday, Sept. 6-7, in the Anne R. Belk Theater in Robinson Hall.

Charlotte photographer Micah Cash’s “Waffle House Vistas” exhibit is on display in the Storrs Gallery through Friday, Sept. 20. An artist’s reception is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 29.“Waffle House Vistas” focuses on the built environment as seen through the windows of Waffle House restaurants from across the southeastern United States. The collected images contemplate the surrounding architecture of habitat and commerce through the lens of a southern cultural icon.

The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University will host an exhibition of sculptures by lecturer Keith Bryant.  “Metaphorical Reality,” which opens Friday, Sept. 6, presents 12 works that address ideas of loneliness, isolation, architecture and landscape.

The Department of Music will present Assistant Professor of Trumpet Eric Millard and pianist Erin Palmer in the first Faculty & Friends Concert of the 2019-20 season. The concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 26, in the Rowe Recital Hall.The lively program, titled “Carnaval,” will feature a wide range of music, from the Concerto in E-flat by the 19th century opera composer Vincenzo Bellini, to the Irish ballad, “’Tis the Last Rose of Summer.”