The buzuq twangs, the tapan beats and Sevi Bayraktar lets out a joyous zilgit that pierces the air. The zilgit, a shrill Kurdish cry, expresses the feelings of the female dancers of Asia Minor. Read more...

Photo: Sevi Bayraktar (left), a graduate student in world arts and culture/dance and choreographer, Anna Kouchnerov (center), a second-year music performance student, and Merima Tricic (right), a third-year political science and world arts and cultures student, practice for their “Dancing Asia Minor” piece. (Owen Emerson/Daily Bruin)

It’s 1944 in Los Angeles. A couple dressed in glittery evening wear strolls into the glamorous Carnesale Club, where they are greeted by four detectives in the midst of an investigation: catching the killer of a Hollywood legend. Read more...

Photo: Written and produced by third-year theater student Leland Frankel and fourth-year theater student Sarit Rathbone, “Murder in the Key of G” is the first completely student-run murder mystery program put on by the On-Campus Housing Council. The production will take place Friday in Carnesale Commons. (Courtesy of M.J. Watz)

NoViolet Bulawayo describes Zimbabwe through the lucid eyes of 10-year-old Darling, who hungrily scours wealthy streets looking for guavas in the novel “We Need New Names.” Unapologetic and direct, Darling eventually leaves her conflict-torn home for Detroit, where she faces wintry suburbia and the disorienting immigrant experience. Read more...

Photo: Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo will give a lecture on Thursday as part of the Fowler Museum’s Outspoken series, reading excerpts from her novel “We Need New Names.” (Courtesy of Greg Sandoval)