Arts & Entertainment
After learning to DJ during quarantine, Karen Valencia ’15 broke into Chicago’s nightlife scene, bringing reggaeton beats to some of the trendiest clubs. She shares how Northwestern shaped her worldview, what she loves most about DJing and more.
Maryam Keshavarz never dreamed of becoming a filmmaker when she was a Northwestern student in the mid-1990s. The daughter of Iranian immigrants didn’t know that world existed.
The 2023 Northwestern Alumni Medal recipients — Roberta Buffett Elliott ‘54, Chris Galvin ’73, ’77 MBA and Charles S. Modlin Jr. ’83, ’87 MD — are leaders in philanthropy, business and health care.
Members of Knitwestern build community while honing their knitting skills and giving back to local organizations. Open to students and community members alike, the knitting and crocheting club operates on the premise that anyone can learn to knit.
Kyra Kyles ’98, ’98 MS is CEO of YR Media, an educational center for aspiring music producers, podcasters, journalists and multimedia content creators. Kyles opened a new YR Media regional facility in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, offering training programs, paid internships and state-of-the-art audio and video production technology to young people from Chicago, Detroit and other Midwestern cities.
Darsan Swaroop Bellie ’22, who holds a dual degree in jazz studies and physics from Northwestern, is a fellow at the University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), where he conducts research on gravitational waves, compact objects and cosmology. Merging his seemingly disparate passions, he created the Star Eyes Initiative, a jazz group that uses original compositions to communicate scientific concepts in a digestible way, for audiences of all ages.
In 1973, two Northwestern students assembled the cast and crew of Northwestern’s first-ever Mee-Ow Show, originally conceptualized as a new outlet for creatives who felt limited by existing campus performance options. Half a century later, the show — and its ever-growing repertoire of successful alumni, from Julia Louis-Dreyfus ’82, ’07 H to Seth Meyers ’96, ’16 H — is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a spring 2024 reunion.
Whether you know her as NPR radio host Margaret Jo on Saturday Night Live or Cady Heron’s mom in Mean Girls, odds are you know — and love — Ana Gasteyer’s work. Last May, the actor, comedian and singer returned to campus and sat down with Northwestern Magazine’s Clare Milliken to discuss her own career and tips for aspiring artists.
Racheli Galay ’07 DMA is a founding member of Quartetoukan, a Jewish-Arab quartet whose music reflects the multicultural, multilingual society in Israel. A classically trained cellist who specializes in Jewish music, Galay has toured Israel, Germany and Spain with Quartetoukan since 2012, performing songs in Arabic, Hebrew, English and Yiddish that promote harmony and peace.
After booking his biggest acting role yet, Charlie Oh ’16 felt an itch to be part of something that better reflected the contemporary Asian American experience. He wrote a play about a Korean family on an all-American road trip, incorporating themes of identity, assimilation and legacy.
