Writer

Kenneth Best

Ken Best served as editor of UCONN Magazine for 10 years. He is a co-host of the UConn 360 Podcast. He previously covered news and sports in Connecticut for The New York Times, edited the Weekend section for the Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time, wrote arts and culture stories syndicated by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service and was the media coordinator for Yale-New Haven Hospital. During the summer of 2015 he hosted “Walking a Blues Road,” a weekly program on WHUS in Storrs based on the holdings of the Samuel and Ann Charters Archives of Blues and Vernacular African-American Musical Culture at UConn’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. He is the author of Eight Days a Week: An Illustrated Record of Rock ‘n’ Roll (Pomegranate Books).

Author Archive

A UConn student and a recent grad are developing a mobile app that will use music to help reduce stress

Clinton Global Initiative Selects Student Proposal to Develop Music Therapy App for Stress Management

'The Clinton Global Initiative encourages projects with a commitment to action and not just wishful thinking'

June 1, 2021 | Kenneth Best

Alumni
Roccoberton working with Hua Hua Zhang '00 MFA, a puppeteer he met during his trip in China who he recruited to UConn's Puppet Arts program.

UNIMA Cites Roccoberton as ‘Chancellor of Puppetry Education’ for Global Influence

From China to Storrs, recognizing the international scope of Roccoberton's influence

May 26, 2021 | Kenneth Best

Tash Archibald ’21 SFA, whose concentration in art was in illustration/animation, designed a calendar themed assemblage as her senior project. She used party hats, snowflakes and a portrait she drew of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to illustrate January. Assemblage Design by Tash Archibald.

Moving BFA Exhibit Online Illustrates Post-Graduate Life for Art Majors

'If you missed this deadline, you wouldn't be in this catalog. There were more real-world consequences'

May 19, 2021 | Kenneth Best

The logo of the UConn Humanities Institute

20th Class of Humanities Institute Fellows Pursue Wide Range of Scholarship

This year’s class of fellows includes two visiting residential fellows, four dissertation scholars, and nine UConn faculty fellows

April 29, 2021 | Kenneth Best

A scene from “Ensemble,” the MFA thesis project by Hongju (Hannah) Lim, part of the 2021 Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition online at The William Benton Museum of Art.

MFA Exhibits at Benton Showcase Work by DMD, Studio Art Students

Work that celebrates the collaboration that can take place in the arts

April 21, 2021 | Kenneth Best

A dancer’s image from the animation of “Prélude en Berceuse,” the first movement of “Au Gré Des Ondes (Along the Waves) “ composed by Henri Dutilleux. The music in the first movement was performed by Morgan Lee ’22 SFA, a doctoral candidate in piano, and animated by Jonathan Goodrich ’21 SFA.

‘Along the Waves’ Puts Music in Motion Through Animation

'Along the Waves' premieres April 21 at 6 p.m. online

April 20, 2021 | Kenneth Best

Chris Thile holding a mandolin in a posed photograph. He will perform virtually for a UConn audience on April 17.

Chris Thile Returns to Jorgensen Center for Solo Performance on Digital Stage

The Grammy winner will perform for a virtual audience on April 17 at 8 p.m.

April 14, 2021 | Kenneth Best

UConn School of Fine Arts Conference Celebrates 50 Years of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’

The conference will feature discussions of her work and performances of her music

April 7, 2021 | Kenneth Best

One of Kollwitz's characteristically stark etchings, this depicts workers mourning the German Communist Karl Liebknecht, who was murdered by state forces in 1919.

Benton Exhibition Explores Work of Käthe Kollwitz, Who Used Art as Platform for Activism

This is the first solo exhibition of the artist's work at UConn since 2007

April 6, 2021 | Kenneth Best

South Korean protesters stand beside a statue of a teenage girl symbolizing "comfort women," who were sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II, near the Japanese embassy in Seoul on March 1, 2021, the 102nd anniversary of the Independence Movement Day against the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule.

Dudden: Law Professor Promotes Denialism on WW II Military Sexual Slavery

A still-contentious subject in Japan and Korea has become the focus of global attention

March 16, 2021 | Kenneth Best