Fall 2014

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Alumni Life

Czarina Mirani: Party Girl

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Czarina Mirani remembers hopping on the L as an undergrad and hitting Chicago’s house music hot spots, dancing all night and rushing home for a few hours of sleep before class. After studying theater and dance, Mirani ’93 dabbled in modeling and acting and then founded her own dance company, FiveStar Boogie Productions. But she couldn’t shake her love for house, and in August 2005 she launched 5 Magazine, the nation’s only magazine committed exclusively to the dance music that grew out of Chicago’s club scene. “It’s very much a labor of love,” says Mirani, who also DJs at Smart Bar and other Chicago clubs. The monthly magazine, with 10,000 copies distributed free of charge throughout Chicago, includes stories on artists, DJs and producers from house music’s past and present. The daughter of a Filipina mother and Indian father, Mirani moved to the United States from the Philippines to transfer to Northwestern at the start of her sophomore year. Although she has faced several cultural barriers throughout her professional life, being a female, Asian DJ made her stand out and helped propel her career, she says. “House music is multicultural,” she says, “and it’s a very accepting culture.”