UCLA PRESENTS THE BEST in arts and culture, community events, sports and entertainment. From fabulous film screenings to amazing art exhibitions, you’ll find a myriad of one-of-a-kind experiences this month. For more UCLA events, visit community.ucla.edu.
JUNE 13 | 1 P.M.
Pride is power at the UCLA LGBTQ Campus Resource Center. This June marks 28 years of its Lavender Extravaganza, an annual celebration recognizing Bruins for their leadership, achievements and contributions in support of the LGBTQ+ community at UCLA. The event starts with keynote speakers from the center before moving into an awards ceremony featuring a graduating student speaker and a recognition of graduates. The night concludes with a celebratory gathering where Bruin undergraduates, graduates, faculty, staff and guests will offer kudos to the Class of 2026. Anyone who would like to support LGBTQ+ Bruins is welcome to attend. Come feel the spirit of Bruin pride at Korn Convocation Hall.
JUNE 5–JUNE 21
2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema
Over the course of three weekends in June, Iranian films will once again light up the Billy Wilder Theater screen in the Hammer Museum at UCLA: The UCLA Film & Television Archive’s annual Celebration of Iranian Cinema is back. Each weekend, the Archive will screen works reflecting the range of Iranian cinematic arts, starting with the 2025 Canadian drama Mortician, which follows an Iranian expatriate whose job is washing dead bodies in accordance with Islamic law. The Archive plans to show new and classic, film and digital, English- and foreign-language films. All screenings are free; just make sure to reserve your seat.
JUNE 10–JULY 12
Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous
Anna Campbell can’t walk down the street without someone calling her name. That’s life as a trailblazing actress who has won nearly every award there is to win. Years after the height of her career and living abroad, Anna returns to the United States ready to stage a comeback that will redefine her stardom. But when she tries to return to the stage, Anna finds her own iconic performances taken over by younger, ambitious performers. Angry, raucous and gorgeous Anna collides with a new generation challenging her own notions of art, activism, aging and performance. A sharp-witted and soulful new comedy from award-winning playwright Pearl Cleage and Tony Award nominee LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous questions what it means to age on your own terms in a world that seems to keep getting younger. Get your tickets for the Los Angeles premiere at the Geffen Playhouse here.
JUNE 10 | 12:30 P.M.
Lunchtime Art Talk on Edgar Calel
The Hammer Museum has seen many unconventional installations over the years: paintings hanging from ceilings, artists painting live on hallway floors and yarn weaving through the foyer’s pillars. Edgar Calel’s installation is another one of these maverick makings, a series of organic and mineral materials lying atop mounds of dirt. Drawing from his Maya-Kaqchikel community in Guatemala, Calel uses materials with ancestral knowledge and spiritual meaning to reflect a worldview in which art, nature and community are inseparable. Pablo José Ramírez, a curator at the Hammer and the inaugural curator of Indigenous art at the Tate Modern Museum, knows Calel’s iconoclastic mounds intimately and wants to share their histories with you in this lunchtime art talk. Free, insightful and efficient, Ramírez’s Wednesday Art Talk aims to familiarize you with one of the world’s foremost Indigenous artists. Come see Calel’s unconventional mounds and learn from Ramírez’s expertise for yourself, no reservation required.
JUNE 16 | 7:30 P.M.
June 16 is not just your regular Tuesday. The entirety of James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses takes place on the single day of, you guessed it, June 16, 1904. Each year on this day, the Hammer Museum contributes to the worldwide celebration of Joyce by transforming the museum floor into 20th-century era Dublin, the setting the novel’s main character (Leopold Bloom) spends 732 pages walking through. Veteran actors move about the museum, delivering dramatic readings from the novel and singing traditional Irish ballads. Liven up your Tuesday night by watching a little slice of Ireland come to life at the corner of Wilshire and Westwood — no tickets required.
JUNE 26 | 7:30 P.M.
Food and Film: Like Water for Chocolate
When Like Water for Chocolate premiered in 1992, it became an instant arthouse sensation. Based on Laura Esquivel’s novel of the same name, the film is a sensuous tale of forbidden love unfolding in early 20th century Mexico. Tita is bound by family tradition to remain unmarried to care for her mother, but that doesn’t stop her from pining after the handsome Pedro. Tita pours her passion and heartache into her cooking, which has a magical and intoxicating effect on all those who consume it. As part of the Food and Film series, the Hammer Museum and the UCLA Film & Television Archive are screening Like Water for Chocolate. Curated by renowned chef, activist and cinephile Alice Waters, this screening draws on her philosophy that eating, like art, is a political act at the intersection of the culinary and artistic worlds. Before and after the screening, Waters will speak about the role of food as another character in the film, working right alongside Tita and Pedro. Like admission to the Hammer, this event is completely free; tickets are first-come, first-served.
JUNE 6 | 7 P.M.
UCLA Latino Alumni Association Grad Bash
¡Felicidades graduadas! This year marks the 2nd annual Grad Bash from the UCLA Latino Alumni Association (ULAA). Grad Bash, one of the largest Latino celebrations at UCLA, welcomes the Class of 2026 and their familias into the Bruin community. ULAA is going all out this year: agua fresca, Oaxacan mole, complimentary drinks, a live DJ, professional photo booth, guest speakers and a pinning ceremony. This is more than a celebration — it is a powerful welcome into a lifelong familia and one of the strongest Latino alumni networks in the country (more than 60,000 Latino and Latina alumni across the globe!). Come to the James West Alumni Center — RSVP for free — and experience the energy, pride and love of the Latino Bruin community. ¡Dale UCLA!
JUNE 10 | 6 P.M.
We’re counting down the days until graduation, when UCLA can officially welcome the UCLA Class of 2026 to the Alumni Association as Bruins for life. This Class of 2026 Sendoff is here to celebrate just that — new Bruin alumni coming together to celebrate graduation seasons and all things blue and gold. Graduates, friends, family and alumni are invited to the James West Alumni Center to eat, drink, dance, play games, take photos, receive graduation fits and relish the memories of their time at UCLA. RSVP coming soon, and congratulations Bruins!
