Jazz stars

The Tia Fuller Quartet opens the 110th season of the Cornell Concert Series (CCS) Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall. The quartet features Fuller on saxophone, pianist Shamie Royston, acoustic bassist Mimi Jones and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington.

Fuller spent five years in Beyoncé Knowles' band and recently was assistant musical director for Esperanza Spalding's Radio Music Society tour.

Tickets are $25-$35 general, $17 students, all seats reserved. A Cornell discount rate is available online with a valid NetID. Single tickets for all nine CCS concerts, season subscriptions, and four-concert classical, world music and custom packages are available. Call 607-255-5144 for subscriptions, visit Ticket Center Ithaca on the Commons (607-273-4497) or go to http://www.cornellconcertseries.com/ or http://www.baileytickets.com.

Fantasies for piano

Pianist Sezi Seskir, a recent Cornell D.M.A. graduate in historical performance practice, returns to campus Sept. 15 to perform a program of fantasies for solo piano and four hands, 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall Auditorium.

Seskir will play pieces by Brahms, Chopin and Schumann, and assistant professor of music Roger Moseley will join her for Schubert's Fantasie in F Minor for four hands. A native of Ankara, Turkey, Seskir is a visiting assistant professor at Bucknell University.

The concert is the first of the academic year presented by the Department of Music. Free and open to the public.

A Cappella United

The sixth annual A Cappella United event will bring together Cornell's a cappella groups for a concert Sept. 15, 7 p.m. in Bailey Hall. All proceeds will benefit the United Way of Tompkins County.

Twelve groups will perform, including After Eight, Cayuga's Waiters, Chordials, Class Notes, Hangovers, Key Elements and Last Call.

General admission tickets are $8 at http://BaileyTickets.com.

Debt documentary

After a summer-long renovation, Cornell Cinema will reopen Willard Straight Theatre Wednesday, Sept. 19, with a 7:15 p.m. screening of "Payback," based on Margaret Atwood's book "Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth."

Jennifer Baichwal's 2012 documentary explores debt in its various forms -- societal, personal, economic, spiritual, criminal and environmental -- and debtor/creditor relationships. Regular Cornell Cinema admission ($5-$8); free for new students.

During Homecoming Weekend new students are also admitted free to screenings of new prints of "The Graduate" (1967) from Sept. 21-23 and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953), Sept. 22-23.

Book talks

Sociologist Victor Nee and President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes will discuss their new books this week.

Nee, director of the Center for the Study of Economy and Society and the Frank and Rosa Rhodes Professor of Sociology, will speak on "Capitalism From Below: Markets and Institutional Change in China,"Sept. 19 at 4:30 p.m. in Olin Library's Amit Bhatia '01 Libe Café.

More than 630 million Chinese have escaped poverty since the 1980s. The decline in poverty, from 82 to 10 percent of the population, is the largest in history and coincided with the rapid growth of a private enterprise economy. Nee and co-author Sonja Opper studied more than 700 manufacturing firms in the Yangzi region and argue that China's new economy bubbled up from below.

Rhodes, a geologist and Cornell's president from 1977 to 1995, will discuss "Earth: A Tenant's Manual," Sept. 20 at 4 p.m. in Mann Library 160. Rhodes provides a comprehensive, deeply informed guide to the home we all share, showing us how we might best preserve the Earth's livability for this and future generations. The book looks at the structure of the planet, with an analysis of how it is being depleted and a road map for sustainability through new resources, new priorities and new policies.

Both events are free and open to the public. The authors will answer questions, refreshments will be served, and books will be available for purchase and signing. Information: http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/booktalks, http://mannlib.cornell.edu/events-exhibits.

Reading series

The Creative Writing Program's fall 2012 Barbara and David Zalaznick Reading Series opens Sept. 20 with poet Claudia Emerson, reading from her work at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. Free and open to the public.

Emerson received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her book "Late Wife: Poems." The poet laureate of Virginia 2008-10, she released her newest collection, "Secure the Shadow," this year.

The series also features poet and editor Don Share Oct. 18, the Eamon McEneaney Memorial Reading with Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney, Oct. 25, novelist and essayist Jonathan Franzen Nov. 1 (tickets required, available Oct. 1), and Shop Talk Nov. 8 with publishing and screenwriting industry insiders Fiona McCrae, Jim Rutman and Carl Beverly.

Information: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/english/creative/readings/, creativewriting@cornell.edu or 607-255-7847.

On stage

The Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts' 2012-13 season will feature cross-campus collaborations, musicals, new works, film screenings and dance.

The first show in the season, "Emergence," Sept. 20-22, takes place in part in a physics lab, and is a collaboration between the departments of physics and performing and media arts and Redshift Productions.

The season also includes "God of Carnage," Oct. 25-27; "The Adding Machine: A musical," Nov. 16-17 and Nov. 30-Dec. 1; the Fall Dance Theatre concert, Nov. 29-Dec. 1; "A People," Feb. 15-16 and 22-23; "Crazy Blood," April 5-6 and 12-13; and the Locally Grown Dance Festival/Risks in the Arts, May 1, 2 and 4.
 For a season brochure, visit http://www.pma.cornell.edu.

Season subscriptions and four-show flex passes are available until Sept. 22 at http://www.schwartztickets.com, by calling 607-254-ARTS or at the box office, open weekdays from 12:30-4 p.m. Subscription orders come with two free Cornell Cinema passes.

Update: The Sept. 20-22 shows are sold out; a 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23 performance has been added.

Journalism and justice

Charles Blow, visual op-ed columnist of The New York Times, will deliver the Daniel W. Kops Freedom of the Press Lecture, "Journalism and Justice: A Look at the Trayvon Martin Case," Sept. 20
 at 4:30 p.m. in Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. Free and open to the public.

Blow joined The New York Times in 1994 as a graphics editor and was the Times' graphics director for nine years, leading the newspaper to a Society of News Design award for its information graphics coverage of 9/11.

The lecture is sponsored by the American Studies Program.

Day of Caring

The community is invited to support those in need at the 10th annual Stephen E. Garner Day of Caring, Sept. 21 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the large pavilion in Stewart Park. The event includes a program at noon.

Donations of nonperishable food, new personal care items, pet supplies and school supplies will be accepted and given to local food pantries and community organizations for distribution throughout Tompkins County.

Information: United Way of Tompkins County, 607-272-6286.