The Alloy Orchestra returns

Cornell Cinema hosts a return engagement by Alloy Orchestra, performing original film scores March 9-10 in Willard Straight Theatre. The trio will perform at screenings of Russian director Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 feature debut, “Strike,” March 9 at 7:15 p.m., and the 1926 Buster Keaton comedy-action film “The General,” March 10 at 1 p.m.

“Strike,” part of Cornell Cinema’s Labor on Film series and ILR’s Union Days, depicts a 1912 factory workers’ strike that meets with violent suppression. Tickets are $12 general, $10 for senior citizens and students.

“The General” is part of the IthaKid Film Festival and recommended for ages 6 and up. Tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for children age 12 and under. Advance purchase is recommended, at the box office in Willard Straight Hall and at CornellCinemaTickets.com.

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Alloy Orchestra began composing and performing original scores for silent films in 1991. The trio accompanied “Strike” during their first Cornell appearance in 1999. This visit is cosponsored by the Department of Music, Cornell Council for the Arts, the ILR School and the Ithaca Youth Bureau.

Also at Cornell Cinema: Cornell Historical Society sponsors a free screening of “Darkest Hour” March 12 at 7 p.m. (with Oscar-winner Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill); and local traditional Irish group Traonach performs March 13 at 6:45 p.m. before “Song of Granite.”

Union Days, Equal Workplace Summit

Union Days 2018, sponsored by The Worker Institute and the ILR School, brings labor leaders to campus for events March 9-15 and informal discussions with students. This year’s theme is “Subverting Technology: Radical Possibilities for the Future of Work.” In addition to a ticketed March 9 screening of “Strike” (see above), other events are free; all are open to the public.

Philip Jennings, general secretary of UNI Global Union, the worldwide service-sector trade union (with 900 unions in 150 countries), gives the Milton Konvitz Memorial Lecture, March 13, 4:30 p.m. in 105 Ives Hall. His lecture, “The Future of Work, Peace and Justice: Is It Two Minutes to Midnight Yet?” will be livestreamed; RSVP for an email notification.

A Social Justice Career Fair, March 15, 1-4 p.m. in the ILR Conference Center, 423 King-Shaw Hall, features alumni and other representatives from labor unions, nonprofits, worker centers, NGOs and various advocacy organizations.

A “Technology and the Future of Work” discussion is March 15, 4:30 p.m. in 105 Ives Hall. Panelists are Ifeoma Ajunwa, assistant professor of organizational behavior at ILR and law faculty associate; Andrew Crook ’15, of the American Federation of Teachers; Maria Figueroa, Worker Institute director of labor and policy research; “Cyber-Marx” author Nick Dyer-Witheford of Western University, Ontario, Canada; and Alex Rosenblat, author of “How Uber Plays Us All” (2018), technology ethnographer with Data & Society Research Institute.

Also at ILR: The annual Towards a More Equal Workplace Summit, hosted by the ILR Women’s Caucus, includes an alumnae panel on sexual misconduct and harassment at work. The summit, March 10, noon to 4:30 p.m. in the ILR Conference Center, is free and open to the Cornell community; registration required.

Artistic diversity

Sitara Night 2018 is Saturday, March 10, 7 to 9 p.m. in Bailey Hall. The annual showcase, hosted by the student dance team Cornell Sitara, will celebrate artistic diversity at Cornell and feature group performances representing different cultures.

In addition to Bollywood fusion by Cornell Sitara, the show will include Cornell Bhangra, Sabor Latino, Teszia Belly Dance Troupe, Tarana, Big Red Raas, Matan Presberg and Nazaqat. Tickets are available online at BaileyTickets.com or from any Cornell Sitara member for $6. Tickets are $8 at the door. For information, email cusitara@gmail.com.

Justice for domestic violence

Cornell Law School hosts two screenings of “Home Truth” March 14-15, chronicling a Colorado mother’s pursuit of justice and shedding light on how society responds to domestic violence. The subject of the film, Jessica Lenahan (formerly Gonzales), joins panel discussions after the screenings, March 14, 5 p.m. in 186 Myron Taylor Hall, and March 15, 6:30 p.m. at Cinemapolis with an informal reception at 6 p.m. RSVP.

Lenehan’s three young daughters were killed in 1999 after being abducted by their father in violation of a domestic violence restraining order. She sued her local police department for failure to enforce the order, despite her calls for help that night. Seeking to strengthen legal rights for domestic violence victims, she pursued her case in the U.S. Supreme Court and an international human rights tribunal.

Elizabeth Brundige, Cornell associate clinical professor of law, moderates panels each evening with Lenahan and filmmakers April Hayes and Katia Maguire; Advocacy Center of Tompkins County executive director Heather Campbell; University of Miami law professor Caroline Bettinger-López, former White House adviser on violence against women; and Lenora Lapidus, American Civil Liberties Union Women’s Rights Project director.

Follow the links above for more about Lenahan v. USA. Now studied in textbooks around the country, the case informs advocacy and local resolutions (in Tompkins County and elsewhere) declaring freedom from domestic violence as a fundamental human right, and strengthening local prevention and response.

Up with bikes

A bicycle can balance itself with no one touching it. A bike should want to fall over, but why doesn't it? There have been popular theories for more than 100 years. (New experiments show these ideas to be mostly wrong.)

Andy Ruina discusses the mechanics of bicycles at a Science Cabaret, “Why Don’t Bikes Fall Down?” March 14, 7 to 8:15 p.m. at the Sciencenter, 601 First St., Ithaca. Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door. Sciencenter exhibits are not open during the program. Children are welcome to attend.

Ruina, the John F. Carr Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Cornell, will share video and demonstrations of bicycle mechanics, some principles of which relate to the reason people don’t fall down when they walk, and how to make better walking robots.

Jeremy Denk piano concert

Acclaimed pianist Jeremy Denk will perform works by Beethoven, Liszt, Mozart and Prokofiev in the Cornell Concert Series, Friday, March 16, at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall. Tickets are $29-$36 general, $19 for students.

Denk will visit professor of music Rebecca Harris-Warrick’s class, Classical Music from 1750 to the Present, as a guest speaker, March 16 at 11:15 a.m. in B20 Lincoln Hall. The class is open to the public. Denk is expected to discuss his process for learning vast amounts of repertoire and his thoughts on constructing recital programs.

One of America’s foremost pianists, Denk performs frequently at Carnegie Hall and with symphonies across the country, and returns to the BBC Proms this summer to perform Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Royal Albert Hall. He is a MacArthur Fellowship and Avery Fisher Prize winner and was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.