Credit: Rosa Maria Ruehling/Provided

Social justice talks

The diverse perspectives provided to students through community service and the value of service learning are the focus of the Cornell Public Service Center’s (CPSC) Social Justice Lunch Series, with four talks this semester in 100 Barnes Hall from noon to 1:30 p.m. Lunch will be provided.

The first of the facilitated discussions with community partners is “Food Justice,” Feb. 26, with Bobby J. Smith II, a doctoral student researching enhancing food security for underserved populations; Eden Connelly of the Multicultural Resource Center; and Rafael Aponte, creator of a community-minded local farming venture focusing on education and sustainable food production for low-income communities.

Upcoming topics for the talks are “Art for Social Change,” March 11; “The Education Gap,” March 25; and “Re-entry,” April 15.

The CPSC also co-sponsors “The Facing Project: Storytelling for Change,” a talk by project co-founders J.R. Jamison and Kelsey Timmerman, Friday, March 4 from noon to 1:30 p.m. in 102 Mann Library. They will share stories about becoming engaged citizens and The Facing Project, which strengthens communities by connecting people through stories.

Part of the speaker series “The Local and the Global: Dialogues on Community Engagement,” co-sponsored by Engaged Learning and Research and the Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives, the event is free and open to the public. RSVP to elr-cornell@cornell.edu.

Kitty cornucopia

Cornell Cinema presents the Second Internet Cat Video Festival, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre. The program of short videos was curated by Will Braden, creator of the Henri Le Chat Noir videos, for the Walker Art Center. Admission to the themed event includes a sequined cat mask, kitty cat candy, famous kitty cutouts, kitty ears and all the LOLcats you could possibly want.

The event will feature Bruce Kornreich, associate director for education and outreach at the Cornell Feline Health Center, and Leah Shafer ’94, M.A. ’99, Ph.D. ’08, a media and society professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, who has written about the appeal of the art form, including “Cat Videos and the Aesthetics of the Superfurry” for a forthcoming issue of Film Criticism.

Also at Cornell Cinema: A free Oscar Night Party with viewing of the Academy Awards ceremony Feb. 28 in the Bear’s Den at the Ivy Room in Willard Straight Hall, with fancy food, beverages, Oscar bingo and prizes; and “Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict,” March 3 and 6, profiling the heiress who was a friend and patron to Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp and many other artists. The first 40 art students get in for free to the 7 p.m. screening March 3, courtesy of the Department of Art and the Art Majors Organization. All patrons are invited to come at 6:30 p.m. for Peggy Guggenheim-inspired hors d’oeuvres before the screening.

All-Mozart concert

The Cornell Concert Series will present the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra with German baritone Christian Gerhaher, Friday, Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall. Reserved seating is $25, $34 and $38 for the general public; $18 (all sections) for non-Cornell students; $25-$36 for Cornell employees and $15 (all sections) for Cornell students with valid netID. Tickets are available online.

The ensemble will present an all-Mozart program of symphonies and opera arias showcasing Gerhaher. Founded in 1987 by a group of musicians interested in historical performance, the Freiburger Barockorchester tours worldwide, excels in accompanying singers and has produced several critically acclaimed recordings on the Harmonia Mundi, Virgin, Naïve and Carus Verlag labels.

Artist Sam Durant

Multimedia artist Sam Durant, the Department of Art’s spring 2016 Teiger Mentor in the Arts, will discuss his recent work in a public lecture, Feb. 29 at 5:15 p.m. in Milstein Auditorium.

The Los Angeles–based artist engages a variety of social, political and cultural issues in his work, often referencing American history and subjects as diverse as the civil rights movement, southern rock music and modernism. In 2006, he compiled and edited “Black Panther: the Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas,” a comprehensive monograph of Douglas’ work, and curated a related exhibition shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (2007-08) and the New Museum in New York City (2008-09).

Durant was a finalist for the 2008 Hugo Boss Prize and he has exhibited extensively and internationally; his art has been included in the Panamá, Sydney, Venice and Whitney Biennales.

‘A man who questions’

Gerard Aching, director of the Africana Studies and Research Center, gives the Society for the Humanities’ 2016 Invitational Lecture, March 2 at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. A reception will follow at the A.D. White House. Both events are free and open to the public.

Aching’s lecture, “’Oh my body, always make me a man who questions’: The Apostrophized Black Body in Fanon and Coates,” will draw connections between Franz Fanon’s 1952 “Black Skin, White Masks” and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2015 “Between the World and Me.” The annual Invitational Lecture is designed to give a Cornell audience an opportunity to hear one of its own distinguished faculty members.

Chamber concert

The Cornell Chamber Orchestra will perform Friday, March 4, at 7 p.m. in Klarman Hall Auditorium. The concert is free and open to the public.

Guest conductor Kisun Sung will lead the orchestra in a program featuring Henry Purcell’s “Chacony in G Minor” and two works by Benjamin Britten: “Sinfonietta,” with woodwind quintet, and “Simple Symphony.”

A six-time winner of ASCAP’s Adventurous Programming award, collegiate division, the orchestra comprises more than 30 student musicians as well as graduate students and faculty members. The event is sponsored by the Department of Music with support from the Cornell Council for the Arts.

‘Keyboard Networks’

The Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies hosts a symposium on campus, “Keyboard Networks:Interrogating the Cultures and Technologies of the Keyboard,” March 4-5. Academic presentations begin Friday, March 4 at 2 p.m. in Lincoln Hall.

Exploring the boundaries between digital and analog, modern and antique, keyboard networks bring together instrument and player, player and listener, sound and public, past and present.

The symposium also features evening concerts and lecture-recitals and is the highlight of a yearlong project on keyboard cultures and technologies from the French Revolution to the present. It is supported in part by the Department of Music and the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.