Mini Locally Grown Dance concerts, Dec. 5-7 at the Schwartz Center, will feature original choreography by faculty and students.

Things to Do, Nov. 22-Dec. 6, 2019

Painting nature

Artist Melissa Johnson ’98 has an exhibition of new works on display through Nov. 23 in Olive Tjaden Gallery in Tjaden Hall.

Melissa Johnson: The Day I Saw 1000 Robins” features paintings reflecting experiences in nature. Moving between abstraction and landscape, the works are connected by a love of nature, birds and paint itself.

Johnson is an associate professor of art at Cayuga Community College. She majored in rural sociology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and earned BFA and MFA degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004 and 2006.

The exhibition is co-sponsored by associate professor of art Greg Page.

Also on display: “Warp and Weave,” featuring textile art by Yasmeen Abedifard, MFA ’20, through Nov. 23 in Tjaden Hall’s Experimental Gallery, presented with support from the Cornell Council for the Arts.

Fanclub show

Four music acts will perform at a Fanclub Collective show, Nov. 22 from 9 p.m. to midnight at Cayuga Lodge, 630 Stewart Ave., Ithaca. Doors open at 8:30 p.m.; admission is $6.

The show features postpunk, darkwave, industrial, ambient and experimental music by Odonis Odonis from Toronto, Grün Wasser from Chicago, and Tender Cruncher and Bubba Crumrine from Ithaca.

Thanksgiving Feast

Cornell’s international community and all other Cornellians and friends in the local community are welcome to the 32nd Annual Traditional American Thanksgiving Feast, Nov. 28 in Robert Purcell Marketplace Eatery, on the third floor of Robert Purcell Community Center on North Campus. Seatings are at noon and 1:30 p.m.

Cornell’s 32nd annual Traditional Thanksgiving Feast is Nov. 28 in the Robert Purcell Marketplace Eatery.

The menu includes: New England clam chowder, lentil and butternut stew, roast turkey with gravy and poached salmon with lemon beurre blanc; whipped pesto goat cheese spread, cumin flatbread and beet hummus; millet stuffed peppers, cranberry sauce, buttered corn, Szechuan green beans, purple jasmine rice with mango, olive whipped red potatoes, and candied yams; and pumpkin and apple pies, assorted cheesecakes, petits four and more.

Tickets are $14 for adults, $8 for children ages 6-12. Children age 5 and younger eat free. Tickets are available online now for members of the Cornell community, and will go on sale to the general public beginning Nov. 25 at 9 a.m. Choose your preferred seating time before purchasing.

Students on a meal plan can use a meal swipe or Big Red Bucks to purchase a ticket (one per student). All tickets must be purchased in advance; they are limited and will not be sold at the door. Log in or create an account to purchase tickets. Students can register an account with their Cornell email.

The annual feast is co-sponsored by the Office of Global Learning and Cornell Dining.

Classical feminism

Queen of Carthage,” an opera-oratorio by composer Ellie Cherry ’19, will premiere Dec. 3 at 8 p.m. in Sage Chapel. The performance is free and open to the public.

The oratorio is a setting of the fourth book of Virgil’s “Aeneid” in the original Latin. Cherry lends a new feminist perspective to the popular operatic theme, narrating the later life and death of Queen Dido following the Trojans’ arrival in her city in northern Africa.

Antiquity and modernity meet in musical dialogue in the oratorio, enveloping Virgil’s text in a sonic commentary that highlights, questions and interprets events in the “Aeneid” that are socially relevant today.

Scored for orchestra, choir and solo vocals, the work incorporates elements of ancient Greek and Roman music. The premiere performance features soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, singing the lead role of Dido.

The event is presented by the Department of Music with support from the Cornell Council for the Arts.

Diversity in birding

Ornithologist J. Drew Lanham will discuss his work to engage more people of color in the conservation of nature, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. in Statler Auditorium.

J. Drew Lanham

His talk, “Coloring the Conservation Conversation,” is the Elizabeth E. Rowley Lecture in Cornell Botanic Gardens’ Fall Lecture Series, and is free and open to the public. 

Lanham is a professor of wildlife ecology at Clemson University, an essayist and poet, and the author of “The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature,” winner of the Southern Book Prize and other honors.

Lanham’s talk will touch on reasons why African Americans are largely absent from conservation initiatives and interaction with the natural world, including bird watching. He will share his commitment to putting conservation into practice in ways that are welcoming and inclusive of all communities.

Dance concerts

The Department of Performing and Media Arts (PMA) presents its annual Mini Locally Grown Dance concerts, Dec. 5, 6 and 7 at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. each day in the Class of ’56 Dance Theatre. Tickets are $7, at schwartztickets.com and the box office.

The production is directed by PMA senior lecturers Jumay Chu and Byron Suber, who contributed original choreography. The dance concerts also will feature choreography by lecturer Nic Ceynowa, and by Chu and Suber’s dance composition students.

Media Contact

Abby Butler