Photo by Sophie Calle

Cornell Cinema presents multimedia artist Laurie Anderson's new film "Heart of a Dog" Feb. 19 at 7 p.m., with a reception and a second Anderson feature, "Home of the Brave."

A Laurie Anderson evening

Cornell Cinema presents two films by Laurie Anderson Friday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre, with a reception between screenings.

The event features Anderson’s 2015 documentary “Heart of a Dog,” paying tribute to her beloved rat terrier, Lolabelle, and her late husband, Lou Reed. A personal essay on art, inspiration, death and more, the film combines Anderson’s witty narration with original violin pieces, hand-drawn animation, 8mm home movies and artwork from various exhibitions.

At 9:15 p.m. is a rare 35mm print of the multimedia artist’s 1986 performance film “Home of the Brave.” The informal reception includes complimentary beverages and hors d’oeuvres. Tickets are $20 at CornellCinemaTickets.com and $25 at the door.

The event is geared to Cornell and Ithaca College faculty members and staff, graduate and professional students and Ithaca community members. (“Heart of a Dog” also screens Feb. 18, and patrons can attend the one-time showing Feb. 19 of “Home of the Brave” for a $10 film-only admission price.)

Also showing: “The Second Mother,” Feb. 25 and 28, which begins Cornell Cinema’s “Women in World Cinema” series. Brazil’s entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, the film addresses unspoken class barriers and family bonds, in the story of a live-in housekeeper in contemporary Sao Paolo.

‘The Vagina Monologues’

The Women’s Resource Center presents the 2016 production of “The Vagina Monologues” on campus Saturday, Feb. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Bailey Hall. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Featuring members of the Cornell community and based on Eve Ensler’s Obie Award-winning play, “The Vagina Monologues” explores and celebrates women through a collection of stories taken from interviews with women around the world.

Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door, available at BaileyTickets.com and from cast members. Group rates (of 10 or more) are available by contacting George Holets at gch44@cornell.edu. All proceeds from the Cornell production go to the Advocacy Center of Tompkins County, helping to continue their work to end sexual violence.

Dreaming in fiction

Assistant Professor of English Elisha Cohn discusses her new book, “Still Life: Suspended Development in the Victorian Novel,” Feb. 23 at 4:30 p.m. in 107 Olin Library. The Chats in the Stacks book talk is free and open to the public, with refreshments served.

An exploration of 19th century aesthetics through the Victorian novel’s fascination with states of reverie, trance and sleep, Cohn’s book shows how those states shaped aesthetic forms, drawing upon the writings of Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, George Meredith and Thomas Hardy. She plumbs the new styles they created in their novels for experiences of a sensuous lyricism she terms “still life.” 

Cohn researches Victorian literature with an emphasis on the novel and theories of the aesthetic; her current interests also include the history of neuroscience, animal studies and affect theory. Her essays have appeared in Contemporary Literature, Victorian Studies, the Journal of Victorian Culture and other publications. “Still Life” was published in December by Oxford University Press.

Humanities anniversary

William D. Adams, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, will deliver the Society for the Humanities’ annual Future of the Humanities Lecture, “The Common Good and the NEH at 50,” Feb. 24 at 5 p.m. in Klarman Hall Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Both NEH and Cornell’s Society for the Humanities are observing their 50th anniversaries this year. Timothy Murray, the Taylor Family Director of the Society for the Humanities, will join Adams in a celebration of the contributions both organizations have made over the past half-century.

Adams spearheaded The Common Good: The Humanities in the Public Square, an NEH initiative seeking to enhance the role of the humanities in civic life.

The Society for the Humanities has provided the template at the national and international levels for the role of humanities research centers within the university, Murray said.

Recent Cornell recipients of NEH grants and fellowships include the Society for the Humanities; Cornell University Library; Cornell University Press; Ed Baptist, professor of history; Deborah Starr, associate professor of Near Eastern studies; and Robert Travers, associate professor of history.

Speedy Shakespeare

“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised],” will be on stage Feb. 25-27 and March 4-5 in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts’ Class of ’56 Flexible Theatre. Shows begin at 7:30 p.m. and there will be one matinee, March 5 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $15 general, $8 for students, senior citizens and the Cornell community,available at the box office and at schwartztickets.com.

Presented by the Department of Performing and Media Arts and directed by visiting lecturer Jeff Guyton, the play is a frantic romp through all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays crammed into a 100-minute performance.

With plenty of room for improvisation and audience interaction, a cast of five student actors play themselves playing actors who lack the ability to do “refined” Shakespeare and instead do it their own way, in a loving dismantling of the more ridiculous elements of Shakespeare’s work.