Former student Aiko Nishi Uwate has received an honorary bachelor’s degree from the California State University, 67 years after she was removed from SF State and sent to a World War II internment camp. Uwate was a Music major.

Bring your own bag. Make it a habit and grab it. These are the refrains in student-produced television and radio advertisements airing this fall throughout the Bay Area. This public education campaign waged by the Bay Area Recycling Outreach Coalition (BayROC) aims to help the environment through these simple reminders.

Actress Annette Bening, one of SF State’s most famous alumni, has rediscovered the love for theatre that she kindled as a child. The three-time Academy Award nominee stars in the title role “Medea” at UCLA Live’s International Theatre Festival. In February, she stars in Joanna Murray-Smith’s “The Female of the Species.”

Alumnus Frank Zamacona is not a conductor or performer but he does direct opera. This weekend he directs his third simulcast for Opera at the Park.

The always offbeat San Francisco Fringe Festival is in full swing, featuring uncensored performances for the open-minded theatre fan featuring artists from countries across the globe. Music alumna Brandi Brandes is among them, as her original composition accompanies “Legs and All.”

The new movie “Taking Woodstock” takes viewers back in time 40 years, going behind the stage to explore how the historic music festival became a reality. As the film’s production designer, Theatre Arts alumnus David Gropman is responsible for re-creating the world in which the story takes place.

Check out the September 2009 edition of the Creative Arts E-Lert, the official e-mail newsletter of the SF State College of Creative Arts. This issue highlights upcoming events including the exhibits “Cartographic Imagination/An Atlas,” a video screening about the Smile Foundation of India and a free Morrison Artists Series concert with the Grammy-nominated Eroica Trio. The newsletter also includes news on international awards won by Cinema students, an alumna who has joined the Ringling Bros. Circus and more.

Professor Rhonnie Washington makes a grand entrance in “El Otro,” the acclaimed Octavio Solis play enjoying a run through Sept. 20 in San Francisco. “As a first act closer, it’s hard to beat Rhonnie Washington’s entrance as El Charro Negro, one of Solis’ more fanciful and inspired creations and a consistent treat throughout in Washington’s hands,” Robert Avila writes in a Sept. 2 review in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

More than 200 top scholars and writers nationwide contribute essays to a new, bold volume on the history of American culture, “A New Literary History of America.” Joseph McBride, associate professor of Cinema, writes the essay on screenwriting.