Discover More: Free Talks, Workshops, and Events

A New Season of Movement & Discovery at Carolina Performing Arts.

This fall, experience the arts up close.

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Music in Action: Alexi Kenney Violin Clinic

What can audiences learn by watching a musician work through a piece in real time? On Thursday, October 22, violinist Alexi Kenney works one-on-one with UNC violin students in a public clinic at Moeser Auditorium. Audiences can observe as Kenney shares his approach to technique, interpretation, and the choices that shape a performance.

The clinic is part of Kenney’s two-night engagement as Carolina Performing Arts’ inaugural Emil Kang Artist in Residence. The residency reflects CPA’s ongoing commitment to creating opportunities for artists to connect with students and the community on stage, in classrooms, and through shared experiences.

Kenney moves between solo performance, chamber music, and projects that pair violin with electronics and video, including Shifting Ground. He is a founding member of the quartet Owls and a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.

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Experience the Experimental Engineering Lab at UNC Research Week

Step inside one of UNC-Chapel Hill’s most unique research environments and discover how researchers and students turn ambitious ideas into working technologies.

The Experimental Engineering Lab (EEL) in the Department of Computer Science supports research that blends computing with hands-on engineering, providing access to spaces and tools rarely found within a computer science department, including machine shops, electronics fabrication facilities, rapid prototyping labs, wet labs, and specialized testing environments. Students and researchers use the lab to develop everything from robotics and virtual reality experiences to health technologies and environmental monitoring tools.

As part of UNC Research Week and in partnership with Carolina Performing Arts, this open house invites UNC and Chapel Hill community members to explore the lab through 10+ demonstrations and conversations with Carolina researchers and students.

The event offers a preview of Carolina Performing Arts’ upcoming All. Together. Now. festival (February 19–21), which will bring together artists, scholars, and communities. Through interactive experiences and informal discussions, festival participants will discover how research, creativity, and collaboration can deepen our understanding of the world and inspire new possibilities for the future.

Whether you’re curious about emerging technologies, interested in the creative process, or simply looking for a behind-the-scenes look at research happening on campus, we invite you to participate in UNC Research Week by visiting the EEL to experience innovation in action.

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Black Feminist Revival Sunday Service

Gather in community through a special engagement connected to our upcoming presentation of EcoTones, created by Toshi Reagon with Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Danielle Spurlock, and Danielle Purifoy.

Join the Black Feminist Revival Service, a shared ritual centered on grounding, reflection, conversation, artistic inquiry, and collective meaning-making, led by multidisciplinary artist, theologian, and facilitator Ṣangodare. The service draws inspiration from the mutualistic forest and brings together congregational singing, a sermon by Ṣangodare, and an oracle from Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

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Rooted in Community: The Stories that Bind Us

Join us for a community storytelling event featuring stories from special guests, followed by an open mic where community members are invited to share their own.

Interested in taking the mic? Come prepared with a personal story of five minutes or less about how you’ve found, built, or maintained your community or connected with your family history.

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Meet Me at the Elder Tree: A Libation for the Ancestors

Join public historian and seventh-generation Black Chapel Hillian Danita Mason-Hogans and conservation social scientist Shorna Allred for a pre-show libation ceremony honoring generations of laborers at UNC-Chapel Hill. The gathering takes place beneath the elder Davie Poplar, which has stood on these grounds since before the university opened in 1795.

Created in collaboration with the EcoTones artists, this grounding experience reflects the themes of EcoTones, exploring connections between Black genealogies and ecologies. The gathering will conclude with a procession from the Davie Poplar to Memorial Hall.

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Dance Uncovered: Sankai Juku

What does a dance form that emerged amid the political protest and rapid social transformation of postwar Japan have to say to us now?

The evening before Sankai Juku takes the stage, Christopher Nelson, professor of anthropology at UNC-Chapel Hill, welcomes William Marotti, a UCLA professor of history and butoh specialist, to his Anthropology 330 class. Marotti has studied the form alongside the critical art and popular movements of that era.

At UCLA, Marotti teaches modern Japanese history with a focus on everyday life and cultural-historical questions, and chairs the East Asian Studies M.A. Interdepartmental Degree Program. Nelson has opened this lecture to the public, so you can sit in on a real class and watch the performance the next night with fresh eyes.

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Add Your Voice: PlayMakers Call for Submissions

Add your voice at All. Together. Now. PlayMakers Repertory Company is calling for new short plays that capture authentic North Carolina flavors and experiences as part of the North Carolina Folk Play Project.

Plays with music are welcome! Submit a short play (10–20 minutes) for a chance to be featured in readings during All. Together. Now. and go on tour to communities around the state as part of PlayMakers’ 2027–28 season.

Submission deadline: Sunday, November 15, 2026

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Please contact our Ticket Services team at 919.843.3333 or carolinaperformingarts@unc.edu for questions or more information.