Programs
Our programs reflect the variety of artistic and social investigation that is being pursued by the Mills community and that we foster in the performing arts community as a whole. Mills Performing Arts partners with Mills College academic departments and with our generous program funders to create an exciting selection of presentations and performances, drawing on the talents of local, national, and international artists and scholars.
Current Programs
Mills Music Now
Presented by the Mills College Music Department and the Center for Contemporary Music, the annual Mills Music Now Concert Series is a celebration of the College’s rich tradition of experimental music and a glimpse into the genre’s exciting future. Mills students, faculty, and visiting artists come together to define the cutting edge of music, from electronic to classical performance to improvisation.
Bridging Perspectives Film Series
Presented by Northeastern University and Mills Performing Arts, in collaboration with the Oakland International Film Festival. Bridging Perspectives is a transformative three-part film screening series that delves into pressing social issues of our time: climate change, racial and gender justice.
Past Programs
We Are the Voices
We Are the Voices is a five-year, multi-pronged project that brings visiting artists and scholars to campus, broadening the conversation for Mills students and building connections with our local community. In fall 2019, the project launches with a series of public artist conversations, readings, and lectures. The Mills College Literatures & Languages Department presents We Are the Voices through the generosity of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Trans Studies Speaker Series
The Mills College Trans Studies Speakers Series, hosted by Emmy Award-winner Susan Stryker, our Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership, offers a new online public forum for exploring transgender issues with some of today’s leading thinkers, artists, and activists.
Songlines
Presented by the Mills College Music Department and the Center for Contemporary Music, the Songlines Series is an exciting forum for exploring the latest ideas in experimental music, improvisation, and sound art. These symposia on sound, nature, technology, and performance include informal evening concerts and discussions led by composers-in-residence, guest composers, performing artists, and leading musicologists.
B.L.A.C.K. Speaker Series
Presented by the Mills College Dance and Theater Studies Department and the Office of the Provost, this on-going, monthly series of online events centers on Black and Brown voices in lively conversation about the influence, significance and unique cultural contexts of Black art, intersecting dance, music, spoken word and visual art.
Meredith Monk __ Indra’s Net
Monk’s third evening-length work dedicated to the examination of humans’ relationship to nature, Indra’s Net, will be an exploration of the interplay of music, movement, architecture, and space. The work focuses on the viewer’s perception and how that influences an individual’s relationships in the world. Mills Performing Arts presents Indra’s Net through the generosity of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.