Blog interview with Dr. Polly Nooter Roberts was conducted by the UCLA Simms/Mann Center for Integrative Oncology. Dr. Mary “Polly” Nooter Roberts is Professor of World Arts andCultures at UCLA, as well as Consulting Curator for African Arts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Eight years ago, she was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer (MBC), and ever since, she has been a stellar advocate of MBC research and outreach to those living with MBC. Polly is a mother and grandmother, as well as a loving wife to Dr. Allen Roberts, also a professor at UCLA. In the interview below, Polly describes profound personal insights she has gained since receiving her cancer diagnosis—what she now views as an unexpected detour that has led to a reimagining of both her life’s purpose and the meaning of personal transformation. Click here to read the full article.

The latest short film in the UCLA Arts An Imaginative Offer series, Leaning Forward spotlights the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture’s internationally acclaimed public arts institutions: UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, the Fowler Museum, and the Hammer Museum. Collectively, these venues create a vibrant cultural commons for the research university, Los Angeles, and the world. Click here to watch the short film.

Magda Saleh, MA in Dance 1974. Think of Egyptian dancers and the first image to come to mind is not likely to be a ballerina. Yet once upon a time, the Egyptian ballerina Magda Saleh danced the dream role of Giselle in Moscow as a guest star with the mighty Bolshoi Ballet. Even more improbably, she danced it in the opera house in her hometown, Cairo — where to call a woman a “dancer” was an insult — with a full troupe of Egyptians trained by Russians in an academy established by the Egyptian state. Click here to read the full article.