With the academic year in full swing, September also brings a wide array of arts events. From captivating Emory Dance performances to a Spike Lee film takeover, get ready to launch into a season full of creativity, dialogue, reflection and celebration.
See films through a new lens
This fall, the Emory Cinematheque presents “40 Years of Brother Spike Lee,” a semester-long celebration of the genre-defining, Academy Award-winning auteur. Free screenings take place every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in White Hall, Room 208. This month, you can catch “School Daze” on Sept. 9, “Do the Right Thing” on Sept. 16, “Jungle Fever” on Sept. 23 and “Malcolm X” on Sept. 30.
Lovers of documentary films have multiple opportunities to catch a screening on campus this month, beginning with “Sabbath Queen” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 9, in the Rita Anne Rollins Building, Room 102. Part of the Ethics at the Movies series, this documentary screening follows Rabbi Amiachei Lau-Lavie’s personal journey as he becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of an all-welcoming and inclusive congregation called Lab/Shul. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director and producer Sandi DuBowski. The event is free and open to the public.
On Thursday, Sept. 10, the Department of Film and Media presents a screening of “Smooth World,” a documentary exploring the “terminally uncool” genre of smooth jazz and the underground scene of senior citizens fighting to keep it alive. Following the screening, filmmaker Mickey Duzyj will be in conversation with Emory professor Gregory Zinman. The event, which is free and open to the public, takes place at 4 p.m. in White Hall, Room 205.
Finally, “All the Empty Rooms” on Thursday, Sept. 17, will be followed by a discussion with producer-director Joshua Seftel and a panel of pediatric firearm injury experts. The screening of this Academy-Award winning documentary short is free, but registration is required. The event takes place at 7:30 p.m. in White Hall, Room 208.
Artistic dialogue and reflection
The Emory University Department of Classics and the Michael C. Carlos Museum host the 15th annual Herbert W. Benario Lecture in Roman Studies on Thursday, Sept. 10, at 6:30 p.m. in Ackerman Hall. This year’s lecture, titled “Where Is It Growing ...? Winding Vines and World-Making on The Ara Pacis,” features guest speaker Ann Kuttner, associate professor in History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. This event is free and open to the public.
On Thursday, Sept. 17, make your way to the Robert W. Woodruff Library’s Jones Room for the opening of “From Tablet to Tablet: Exploring Emory’s Jewish Studies Collections.” Marking 50 years of Jewish Studies at Emory, this exhibition showcases historic artifacts ranging from a 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablet to an 1804 handmade prayer book and beyond. The event, which takes place at 7 p.m., is free but tickets are required. Can’t make it to the opening celebration? The exhibition is on display through February 2027.
Closing out the month’s diverse array of dialogue, the Carlos Museum marks the Saturday, Sept. 19, opening of its newest exhibition, “Anamnesis,” with a Curatorial Conversation featuring Sergio Suárez, happening at 4:30 p.m. in the Carlos Museum’s Ackerman Hall. The conversation will feature the Atlanta-based artist in discussion with curators Ruth Allen and Andi McKenzie. Together, they will examine Suárez's construction of a new mythos that links ancient Mesoamerican and Greek cosmologies with philosophy, printmaking and astrophysics. This program is free and open to the public, with registration required.
Talent takes center stage
The Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta opens what is sure to be another stellar season of chamber music on Friday, Sept. 11, at 12 p.m. in the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts’ Emerson Concert Hall with Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir de Florence.” Violist Luke Fleming is the featured guest artist alongside cellist Abby Monroe.
This musical momentum continues with “Fantasies and Nightmares,” a piano duet recital with Elena Cholakova and Aaron Stampfl on Sunday, Sept. 13, at 4 p.m. in the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts’ Emerson Concert Hall. Cholakova and Stampfl will collaborate to perform masterworks by Mozart, Schubert, Ravel and more.
Lovers of classical drama shouldn’t miss “Dionysus Americanus: Ancient Drama, New World” on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 6:30 p.m. in Ackerman Hall. This salon features professor of classics David van Schoor and actor/director Park Krausen as they explore modern adaptations of ancient Greek drama. This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Closing out the September arts calendar with a bang, Emory Dance opens its season with “Return Eternal: Echoes from the Cosmogony,” from Thursday, Sept. 24, through Saturday, Sept. 26, in the Dance Studio of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. From choreographer and Emory faculty member Julio Medina, this new work explores the life-death cycle through indigenous Mexican cosmology. Tickets must be purchased in advance for this event.
Arts events at Oxford College
The Oxford campus is also starting the new semester off on an artistic foot.
On Tuesday, Sept. 15, join acclaimed writer and biologist — and Emory adjunct professor — David George Haskell for an author presentation and book signing focused on his latest release, “How Flowers Made Our World.” The event is free and open to the public, taking place at 7:30 p.m. in the Oxford Chapel.
On Monday, Sept. 21, in the Williams Hall Auditorium, pianists Kristi Helfen and Pamela Martin will perform “Compositions for One Piano, Four Hands.” The free program, which starts at 7:30 p.m., will highlight technical mastery as well as expressive depth.
Finally, enjoy “The Tomb of the Librarian: Death and Memory in Antiquity and Today,” a panel discussion exploring the intersection of ancient traditions and contemporary interpretations. Cody Houseman, an expert in Greek pottery and esteemed scholar at Clark Atlanta University, will be joined by Oxford librarian Jacob Lackner, Michael C. Carlos Museum curator Ruth Allen, and professor of art history Tasha Dobbin-Bennett.
Moderated by Dobbin-Bennett, this conversation will center on the library’s exhibition, “Tomb of the Librarian,” examining themes of mourning, remembrance and memorial containers in the ancient world. This free event starts at 5:30 p.m. in the Greer Student Center.
