A masked figure cloaked head to toe in white stepped onto the streets of Lagos, Nigeria. People chatting with fellow shoppers and haggling for merchandise looked up at the figure and moved aside in reverence, understanding the significance of the costume belonging to the exclusively male ancestor ritual of egungun. Read more...

Photo: Brendan Fernandes created this sculpture of a plastic deer wearing a plastic mask to examine the lack of authenticity in the portrayal of African culture. (Owen Emerson/Daily Bruin senior staff)

Introducing first in the black corner, weighing in at 205 pounds, hailing from Galveston, Texas – they call him the Galveston Giant – it’s Jack Johnson. Read more...

Photo: Actor Tony Todd (right) will play boxer Jack Johnson in the play “Ghost in the House: The Life and Times of Jack Johnson,” premiering in Schoenberg Hall Friday. Playing Johnson allowed Todd to reflect on both the athlete’s life and the mirroring of racial tension in America then and now. Johnson learned how to fight in bare-knuckle street fights at nine years old, becoming the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion. (Hannah Ye/Daily Bruin senior staff)

Seven students painted huge, white display boxes in the courtyard of Perloff Hall while several more hooked up large TV panels to white walls inside. With so much to prepare before the exhibition, architecture graduate student Jorel Sanchez Soto held a can of Lysol in his hand as he scrubbed away at windows to let light shine into the gallery. Read more...

Photo: Architecture graduate student Anna Kudashkina is one of 56 graduate students whose work will be displayed at Perloff Gallery starting Friday. The exhibition will present the projects of students from SUPRASTUDIO, a yearlong graduate program in architecture. (Owen Emerson/Daily Bruin senior staff)