Symphonic Dances concert

James Spinazzola directs the Cornell Wind Symphony in a program of “Symphonic Dances,” Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. in Bailey Hall, with special guests the U.S. Air Force Heritage of America Concert Band.

The concert features dance-related music and a collaboration with student dancers in the Department of Performing and Media Arts, under the direction of Jumay Chu. The Air Force Band is on a Veterans Day tour and is composed of professional airman-musicians stationed at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Virginia.

In celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s centennial, the program includes “Prelude, Fugue and Riffs” with the Cornell dancers; and “Symphonic Dances” from “West Side Story.” The symphony also performs music by Tielman Susato and professor of composition Roberto Sierra, the Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities.

The Department of Music also presents the Cornell Symphony Orchestra performing Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, Nov. 18 at 3 p.m. in Bailey Hall, conducted by Octavaio Más-Arocas, director of orchestras at Ithaca College.

The concerts are free and open to the public.

A thousand ships, more or less

Students in Cornell’s Ancient Theater Performance Group will present “Iphigeneia in Aulis,” Nov. 18 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

Admission is free and open to the public. Seating is limited; to reserve seats, email Linda Brown in the Department of Classics.

The play will be performed in English and is directed by Frederick Ahl, professor of classics and comparative literature. For this production, Ahl has revised Charles Walker’s 1958 verse translation of Euripides’ last play, written between 408 and 406 B.C., the year of the playwright’s death.

In the play, the forces of war, weather, pride, honor and the goddess Artemis all test Agamemnon as he prepares to lead a Greek expedition to Troy to retrieve Helen, his brother’s wife. The goddess prevents the fleet from sailing east from the port of Aulis, the restless soldiers kill a sacred deer and Artemis demands a sacrifice: Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigeneia.

Students in Ahl’s Ancient Theater Performance course comprise the cast, and prepared sets and costumes in addition to studying and rehearsing the play. Previous classes have staged English translations of Euripides’ “Alcestis” (2017) and “Orestes” (2015), and Sophocles’ tragedy “Oedipus (Tyrannus)” (2016).

Acid violence awareness

Cornell’s Pakistani Students Association hosts a screening of the short documentary “Saving Face,” bringing attention to victims of acid violence, Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. in G64 Goldwin Smith Hall.

The 2012 film follows plastic surgeon Mohammad Jawad’s return to Pakistan to help those scarred by acid attacks, and features the struggle for justice and healing by two women who were attacked. Inspired by the life of acid victim Fakhra Younus, who committed suicide in 2012, the film won an Emmy Award and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject.

The event includes a discussion after the film and cookies provided by Insomnia Cookies. Donations will be accepted for Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI), which has partner organizations in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Uganda. ASTI also works with United Nations agencies, NGOs and strategic partners across the world to increase the awareness of acid violence and develop effective responses.

Free movies

Cornell Cinema presents a free screening of “All the President’s Men,” Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre, hosted by the Cornell Historical Society. 

Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano star in “There Will Be Blood,” Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. The film by Paul Thomas Anderson is based on Upton Sinclair's novel “Oil.” The free screening is open to the Cornell community and sponsored by the Cornell Energy Club. Snacks will be provided.

“Paywall: The Business of Scholarship” screens Nov. 29 at 4:30 p.m. The documentary explores the open-access movement and the hidden world of for-profit academic publishing, which rakes in $25.2 billion a year. The free screening, co-hosted by Cornell University Library, will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with filmmaker Jason Schmitt, joined by Gerald R. Beasley, the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian, and members of the University Faculty Library Board.

Also showing in Willard Straight Theatre: Gael García Bernalin “Museo” (2018), based on the largest museum heist in Mexico’s history, Nov. 28-29 and Dec. 2. The documentary “Three Identical Strangers” (2018), about reunited triplets who were separated at birth, screens Nov. 29 and Dec. 2. Ticket prices range from $5.50 to $9.

Thanksgiving Feast

The Cornell community and the public are invited to join the 31st annual Traditional American Thanksgiving Feast at Cornell, Nov. 22 from noon to 3 p.m. at Robert Purcell Community Center.

The menu includes roast turkey with gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, candied yams, pumpkin and apple pie, poached salmon with lemon beurre blanc, grilled tofu steak, Szechuan green beans, New England clam chowder and winter vegetable bisque, purple mango rice, assorted cakes and more.

Seatings are at noon and 1:30 p.m. in the third-floor Robert Purcell Marketplace Eatery. Diners are asked to choose their preferred seating time when ordering tickets.

Tickets are available online now to members of the Cornell community, and go on sale Nov. 19 at 9 a.m. to the general public. Tickets are $14 for adults, $8 for children ages 6 to 12. Children age 5 and younger eat for free, as do registered volunteers.

Seating is limited and tickets are not sold at the door. The dinner is sponsored by the Office of Global Learning and Cornell Dining, and cosponsors across campus.

Voting: the battle continues

Associate professor of history Julilly Kohler-Hausmann discusses the raging battles over who deserves voice in our democracy in the 2018 Rabinor Lecture in American Studies, Nov. 28 at 4:45 p.m. in 142 Goldwin Smith Hall.

Her talk, “‘Mandate My Ass!’: Vanishing Voters, Voter Fraud and the Struggles over American Democracy in the late 20th Century,” is free and open to the public.

Kohler-Hausmann focuses on the contested commitment to democracy in the United States since the promise of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Exploring political debates over felon disenfranchisement, declining turnout and voter fraud, she also highlights the continuities with earlier traditions of exclusion, racial subordination and civic stratification.

Locally Grown Dance

The Department of Performing and Media Arts (PMA) stages its annual Mini Locally Grown Dance concert Nov. 29-Dec. 1 at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

Directed by PMA senior lecturers Jumay Chu and Byron Suber, Mini Locally Grown Dance features original choreography including works-in-progress by the co-directors and visiting lecturer Nic Ceynowa; duets and solos choreographed by 16 students in a Dance Composition course; live musical accompaniment and multimedia.

All performances are at 7:30 p.m. in the Class of ’56 Dance Theatre. Tickets are $5 each, available at schwartztickets.com or at the Schwartz Center box office, open Monday-Friday, 1-8 p.m.