Upcoming Events

WUSTL Music returns to Grand Center! The evening will start with the WashU Jazz Band performing in the Grandel Theatre followed by a celebration in The Dark Room with performances by the WashU Jazz Combos. These elite student performers will have your toes tapping all evening.  Free and open to the public.

Are you ready to ‘Boogie Tonight’? Come “Celebrate” The Belief Cycle’s new album at this FREE party that’s sure to leave you with all the “Feels”. Drinks on us while supplies last! Come early and bring your “Energy” and “Appetite”. We’ve got a ‘Toothbrush’ with your name on it!

The Belief Cycle= Drew Mantia + Ryan Marquez

Combining danceable drums, funky bass lines, soulful keys and pop vocal delivery with lyrical insights ranging from overcoming life’s struggles to falling in love on the dancefloor, The Belief Cycle’s music aims to leave you feeling good.

The Belief Cycle is an Electro-Pop duo based out of St. Louis with the mission of having a good time and spreading more love into the world. Officially formed in 2016 by STL native Drew Mantia on lead vocals, guitar and production and KC native Ryan Marquez on keyboards, bass and vocals, The Belief Cycle pair wrote their first songs together in 2007. Mantia moved to Chicago in 2012 and that year his production and Marquez’s keys became the foundation for underground hit, “LSD,” by ProbCause featuring Chance the Rapper. The “LSD” sound would go on to influence the careers of Chicago collaborators ProbCause & The Palmer Squares and the formation of The Belief Cycle.

As of 2019, Mantia & Marquez are now neighbors living in St. Louis, working daily to bring The Belief Cycle to the world.

“How Did I Get Here?” is an experimental solo dance show comprised of pieces that explore the interaction of memory and trauma, told through a wide range of props from scarves to crutches.

When bad situations come our way, particularly when drugs or high emotion are involved, our memories of what happened twist in our heads. Knowing the truth, how to react to it, and how to accept it becomes a complicated journey that sometimes only movements can truly capture.

This show is an intimate, emotionally raw look at the stages of memory after trauma—from the first recall, the slowly shifting and unreliable details, denial, repression, to the moments of recall that cripple and challenge our emotional stability moving forward in life.

Opening Reception & Artist Talk: Friday, April 3, 6 p.m.

Exhibition runs through April 24.

Investigating domesticity and interpersonal relationships through the lens of popular and visual culture Douglas utilizes text, found and personally invented images to present her exhibition “Some Things I Know, Some Things I Only Believe.”

Douglas’s exhibition is the second for this year’s theme of “Knowledge.”

Three artists share the stage performing original music. Jamie Floyd is a Grammy nominated, genre bending songwriter. Her songs have been recorded by Miranda Lambert, Ronnie Dunn and others. Her song ‘The Blade’ was recorded by Ashley Monroe and Miranda Lambert.

Isabelle Stillman is a St. Louis native just starting her career. She released her first album, ‘Middle Sister’ in 2019.

Tim Fagan is a Grammy winning songwriter and the former guitarist and band leader for Coby Caillat. He has performed with John Mayer and toured with numerous others. Tim is now based in Nashville and continues to write and perform.

This eclectic grouping of artist will provide a lively and memorable entertainment experience.

Looking for something different? Fun? Exciting? You’re at the right place old school meets new school Vegas style covers with hits from Janet Jackson, Beyonce, Aliyah, Aretha Franklin, Teena Marie, Etta James and more! Don’t miss this spectacular concert with a live band and choreographed dancers. You don’t want to miss Vegas in St. Louis, hosted by Vanessa Townsend!

DownRight Ent & Yo! Adrian! Present

Back To Basics Vol.2 Tour featuring The Widdler, Pushloop, Smith. & Rez.

April 9, 2020, We are truly going back to the basics. We asked if you all wanted more underground shows in unique and untouched spaces so we are going to be giving you just that. This venue is a 350-capacity dark room with beautiful acoustics and has never seen the liking of a show of this nature!

~~Lineup~~
The Widdler
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SoundCloud
BandCamp
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Pushloop
Instagram
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SoundCloud
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smith.
Instagram
Facebook
SoundCloud
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REZ
Instagram
Facebook
SoundCloud
Twitter

18+ Event

Left Bank Books welcomes award winning St. Louis native author, Walter Johnson, in conversation with Tef Poe discussing Johnson’s new book on the racial dynamics entwined with American and St. Louis history, The Broken Heart of America.

A searing portrait of the racial dynamics that lie inescapably at the heart of our nation, told through the turbulent history of the city of St. Louis. From Lewis and Clark’s 1804 expedition to the 2014 uprising in Ferguson, American history has been made in St. Louis. And as Walter Johnson shows in this searing book, the city exemplifies how imperialism, racism, and capitalism have persistently entwined to corrupt the nation’s past. St. Louis was a staging post for Indian removal and imperial expansion, and its wealth grew on the backs of its poor black residents, from slavery through redlining and urban renewal. But it was once also America’s most radical city, home to anti-capitalist immigrants, the Civil War’s first general emancipation, and the nation’s first general strike—a legacy of resistance that endures. A blistering history of a city’s rise and decline, The Broken Heart of America will forever change how we think about the United States.

“The thread that runs through this entire book is the historical relationship between US imperialism, Indian removal, and anti-Black racism. Although also a granular history of the city of St. Louis, The Broken Heart of America is a deep history of the United States’ continental empire with St. Louis at the center of economic and military operations. This may be the most important book on US history you will read in your lifetime.” — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States.

Walter Johnson is Winthrop Professor of History and professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and author of the critically acclaimed River of Dark Dreams and Soul by Soul, which won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award, the Avery O. Craven Award, and several other prestigious prizes. A Missouri native, he lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Tef Poe is an American-born rapper, author, educator, award-winning journalist, and social revolutionary from St. Louis, MO. He is one of the co-founders of the Hands Up United movement, founded in Ferguson after the killing of Michael Brown Jr. In 2017–2018, he was selected to be the Nasir Jones Hip Hop Fellow via Harvard University’s prestigious W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute. He is currently an Independent Scholar at Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for American Studies. As a hip hop artist, he has performed on stages with the likes of Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Lupe Fiasco, Rick Ross, Bia, Dead Prez, TI, Macklemore, Harry Belafonte, Stevie Wonder, and more.

The River Styx Reading Series is our featured event during the fall, winter, and spring, in which we invite both local and national acclaimed writers to read their work for a St. Louis audience.

Readings start at 7:00 p.m. on the third Monday of the month.

$5 general admission
$4 students and seniors

Apr. 20, 2020
Shane Seely
Erika T. Wurth

The WHY of MY City explores place-keeping in St. Louis neighborhoods. If you love STL, you’ll love this show!

Q&A with Master Storyteller Bobby Norfolk and author John A. Wright will follow the performance.

The WHY of MY City is created and will premiere at the 2020 St. Louis Storytelling Festival with support from Mid-America Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts, Missouri Humanities Council, a state agency and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Missouri Foundation for Health, and Kranzberg Arts Foundation.