Hemingway for lunch

The semester's first Literary Luncheon, hosted by Professor Robin Davisson and President David Skorton at their home, 511 Cayuga Heights Road, Feb. 10, will feature Anne Kenney, the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian. Kenney will talk about Ernest Hemingway's Havana and ongoing work to preserve important library and cultural treasures in Cuba, including those of Hemingway. A light lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. followed by the presentation at noon.

This free event is open to the first 25 people who respond by Feb. 5 by e-mailing special-events@cornell.edu.

Cinema's Elegant Winter Party

A social event for cinema-loving Ithacans, Cornell Cinema's sixth annual Elegant Winter Party will be held Feb. 6 at 7:30 p.m., Willard Straight Theatre. The party doubles as a celebration of Cornell Cinema's 40th anniversary and includes a cocktail hour, a cash bar, live music and door prize drawings.

Providing an insider's look at Hollywood in the early years, a 9 p.m. screening of the Charlie Chaplin short "Behind the Screen" is followed by King Vidor's "Show People," starring silent film comedienne Marion Davies, with accompaniment by silent-film pianist Philip Carli.

Tickets are $45 general ($80 a pair) and $25 student ($40 a pair), and are available at http://CornellCinemaTickets.com and 104 Willard Straight Hall, or by calling 255-3522.

Two salsa dances to benefit Haiti

Cornell's Sabor Latino Dance Ensemble and the Salsa Libre Dance Club will sponsor a Haiti Benefit Salsa Dance Feb. 6, 8 p.m.-midnight, Memorial Room, Willard Straight Hall. The first hour will feature an introductory salsa lesson by Felipe Rivera. The three-hour dance and party that follows will include a performance by Sabor Latino; private dance lessons by Dance Hosts; and food and beverages provided by ProDJ Services.

Minimum $5 donation, students; $10 donation, non-students. All proceeds will go to UNICEF/Haiti.

Also on Feb. 6, 7:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., the student organization Proyecto Palante, in collaboration with the community organization Ithaca Friends of Cuba and with support from the Cornell Latino Studies Program and the student organization Salsa en Rueda Dance Troupe Palante, will hold a Haiti benefit salsa and Latin dance party ($4 students; $6 non-students) at the Big Red Barn, where supplies can be donated during the benefit; for the next several weeks, medicine, medical supplies and other necessities will be collected at various locations across campus. Information: http://www.cornell.edu/events/profile.cfm?id=33809.

Bill Staines folk concert

The Cornell Folk Song Society begins the spring season with Bill Staines, Feb. 6, 8 p.m., Hollis Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. Staines has spent more than 40 years singing memorable, chorus-rich songs of the West and open spaces. His gentle humor and original songs of hardworking prairie farmers, truckers and bush pilots are well known in the Ithaca area.

The concert will be followed by Le Vent du Nord (Feb. 28); Priscilla Herdman (March 13); and Brian Peters (April 17).

Tickets: Ludgate Farms, Ithaca Guitar Works, GreenStar, Bound for Glory, online http://www.cornellfolksong.org/.

One-day workshop on poverty and jobs

The Institute for the Social Sciences' Poverty Team and the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future will present "Moving Out of Poverty," Feb. 11, 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., 423 ILR Conference Center. The workshop will feature research on the barriers faced by low-income households in obtaining and keeping jobs and will explore alternative strategies for addressing problems associated with limited job accessibility.

For more information, visit the Institute for the Social Sciences Web site. To register for this free, public event, contact socialsciences@cornell.edu for a registration form.

Poetry reading

Poet Martha Collins will give a public reading Feb. 11 at 4:30 p.m., Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. The event is part of the Spring 2010 Creative Writing Reading Series. Collins is this semester's distinguished visiting writer at Cornell, teaching undergraduate and graduate seminars in English and creative writing.

Collins founded the Creative Writing Program at University of Massachusetts-Boston and taught creative writing at Oberlin College. She is currently editor-at-large for FIELD magazine and an editor with Oberlin College Press and has published five collections of poems, two chapbooks and two books of co-translations from Vietnamese. Her book-length poem "Blue Front" won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and the Laurence Goldstein Poetry Prize and was chosen as one of "25 Books to Remember from 2006" by the New York Public Library.

Opening reception at the museum

New exhibitions, refreshments and live music kick off the winter exhibitions at the Johnson Museum. The opening reception, Feb. 12, 5-7 p.m., is free and open to the public. It will be preceded by a gallery talk at 4:30 p.m. with the student curators of "Topography in Translation: Navigating Modern Chinese Landscapes." Shuttle bus from Cornell's "A" lot begins at 4 p.m. Information: http://museum.cornell.edu or 255-6464.

Darwin Days

A weeklong celebration of Charles Darwin's birthday features on-campus panel discussions and lectures Feb. 9-12, a reception at the Museum of the Earth and a day of family activities at the museum. The free keynote address on biodiversity, by Doug H. Erwin, a senior scientist and curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, will be held Feb. 12, 5 p.m. at Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. The reception is $10; family day is free for nonmembers. Information: http://www.ithacadarwindays.org, 273-6623, ext. 26, cwk47@cornell.edu.