Utah Arts Festival launches virtual platform of Festival Vibes Fridays today for the month of June

Normally for four days in June, Library Square and the surrounding civic campus in downtown Salt Lake City are transformed into a village of arts and culture for the Utah Arts Festival (UAF), the state’s largest multi-disciplinary gathering of its kind, drawing between 70,000 and 80,000 visitors annually. Despite the inevitable decision in March to … Read more

Expanding the theatrical library during the pandemic: Plan-B Theatre adds 7 short plays from Utah theatrical artists of color to the national Play At Home initiative; its free, public app

One of the most formidable challenges in the COVID-19 pandemic, where live productions have ground to a near-complete standstill, is to keep the engine of creating new work going, especially when it still is unclear when the performing arts will return to an appreciable state of producing work. One national project has been the #PlayAtHome … Read more

Revisiting the Malheur occupation: Utah Film Center sets livestream event with No Man’s Land documentary

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published June 1 but as the Utah Film Center has rescheduled the livestream event of this documentary to June 23 at 7 p.m., The Utah Review is republishing this feature review today. Viewers also should take note that another film by the same director (David Garrett Byars), the 2020 … Read more

Salt Lake City Public Library’s all-digital Super Summer Challenge reading program set to launch June 1

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mark Alvarez, an immigration attorney who also has written for various publications on many subjects along with radio and television appearances, provides the Spanish translation of this article, as presented below the English language version of this feature. Perhaps there are no better places than libraries to experience magic—for example, in fairy tales, mythology … Read more

Utah Film Center sets livestream event of Motherload documentary celebrating mothers, cargo bikes, cycling culture; talkback featuring Bike Utah, Bicycle Collective

If there is at least one good metric coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s the trend of bicycle trips. BikeUtah.org, citing data from the Utah Department of Transportation and Strava Metro, reported that the number of bicycle trips in April more than doubled those in March in the state. While the data represents a … Read more

Utah Film Center sets livestream screening of Mossville environmental justice documentary; Oscars Academy grant, new Cinema on Demand titles available

“Environmental injustice is about [the state] creating sacrifice zones where we place everything which no one else wants,” Mustafa Ali, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) environmental justice program, says. “The justification is always an economic one, that it makes sense to build chemical plants on so-called cheap lands where poor people … Read more

Outstanding quartet of new short plays drive successful premiere of Plan-B Theatre’s Radio Slam; free app now available to listen to performances

Now that all four new short plays from Plan-B Theatre’s Radio Slam have premiered in KUAA (99.9 FM) broadcasts, the company is making available recordings of them free and open to the public via its new mobile app, which can be downloaded here. Each play runs approximately 10 minutes. The project was coordinated with KUAA (99.9 … Read more

Utah Film Center opens May with livestream screening events including The Dog Doc, Miss Hokusai, I’m Leaving Now

The Utah Film Center continues its series of live streaming events, which are free and open to the public, during May. The next three films are, respectively, about integrative care in veterinary medicine; a historical manga series adapted for an anime film about the life of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, as seen from the eyes … Read more

Plan-B Theatre’s Radio Slam to feature four world premiere short plays in daily KUAA-FM broadcasts, May 5-8

Radio always has been a resilient medium in extraordinary times. The COVID-19 pandemic is no different. Results from a recent Nielsen Audio survey show that 83% of consumers are listening to radio more frequently and extensively. Characterizing radio as a “local lifeblood,” Brad Kelly, managing director of Nielsen Audio, says, “In this environment, it’s no … Read more

Utah Film Center sets Rat Film documentary for free, public live stream, featuring director Theo Anthony

Even if the sight of a Norway rat trying to jump out of a garbage can might trigger musophobia in some individuals, Rat Film is a worthwhile documentary that cleverly uses the subject of rodent eradication as a springboard for becoming more aware of the problems of institutional racism. And, this award-winning 2016 documentary has … Read more