Here is the report citing the dollar value of the university. It was put together by a New York-based consulting firm, Appleseed. Yes, the university paid for it. But that doesn’t make it untrue.
While I’m thinking about the plethora of university events that I could attend if I had the time, many of my favorite events take place at the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding. It’s on the edge of the Engineering Quad at the corner of Prospect and Olden.
Insider tip: this even used to be held after lunch in Richardson Auditorium. This year it changed to a breakfast and, for the first time (!), the MLK day is a holiday for university employees.
“I am inspired by lessons from the Caribbean that underscore creativity, resilience and the capacity for both resistance and celebration in the midst of difficulty,” says Alicia Diaz, a professional dancer who grew up in Princeton. She will participate in an unusual lecture demonstration this Friday afternoon at Princeton University. Entitled “Diasporic Body Grammar: an encounter of movements and words,” it will be December 2, 2 to 5:30 p.m. in the Wilson College Black Box Theater.
Asked, in an interview, whether she struggles with stereotypes, Diaz brought forward the stereotype of the “sassy Latina.” “Here ethnicity, gender, and sexuality come together to be consumed and dismissed at the same time. I struggle with rejecting the stereotype and its negative implications while also acknowledging and owning its potential power.”
Diaz, assistant professor of dance at the University of Richmond, will perform with her partner, Matthew Thornton. Here is a video of her work. Also participating will be a Brazilian artist, Antonio Nobrega. For information, contact Pedro Meira Monteiro pmeira@PRINCETON.EDU
I really like the advice in this week’s Richard K. Rein column in U.S. 1.
Believe that what you are doing is important — to you if not to anyone else, no matter how trivial your current assignment might appear to be.
I also like knowing that — no matter how far Rein seems to veer from where he begins, he always ties it up at the end. This week’s ender is more subtle than usual.
A quick way to cure a hangover, a new medical imaging technique, an innovation in American Sign Language, a hackathon tool kit, a robot sous chef, and a fashion discovery engine — some of the best and brightest Princeton undergraduates are launching exciting startups. List here.
They’ve been working all summer in the Keller Lab, and their Demo Day in Princeton is Tuesday, August 9, 2:30 p.m. at the Friend Center. You need to register!
I can’t attend. If anyone who reads this can go, and wants to write it up for this blog, I’d welcome that. If you don’t have my email, put in the comments that you’d be willing to be a guest blogger.
Have you forgotten about, or have your ever even seen, the giant sculpture jewel of Princeton’s campus, the Richard Serra sculpture? Two New York Times articles in the past two days made me want to go back and ‘walk’ the tunnel again. On May 12 Ken Johnson dubbed Serra the “greatest living sculptor of Minimalist abstraction” and suggested that to view Serra’s work currently at the Gagosian Gallery was “an engulfing experience…Moving through the construction, you become acutely attuned to sight, touch and sound and to your own being in time and space. Consciousness itself becomes an object of consciousness.” Today’s article on San Francisco’s MoMA features a Jason Henry photo (above) of the Serra sculpture at the museum’s entrance.
Serra’s 2010 sculpture, behind the Lewis Library (my photo above), is known as “The Fox and the Hedgehog.” As described on the campus web page, Industrial yet sensual, this massive sculpture invites visitors to walk through its steel curves in order to experience art, space, and environment in a physical way. The title, taken from an Isaiah Berlin essay on Tolstoy, quotes the Greek poet Archilochus: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one great thing.” Serra extends this proposition as a question to students—will you be a fox or a hedgehog?
I am not a minimalist. Anyone who has been in my house knows that. But I like to feast my eyes on uncluttered space and put my body between the comforting metal walls of the Serra sculpture. If you haven’t tried it — do, and you can decide if you want to be the Fox or the Hedgehog. For me, that decision has already been made.
Many people fear math, but I never heard of anyone taking it this far. What is the world coming to?
Puerto Rican Soundscapes
“Watching the collaborative performance of dance artist Alicia Diaz and percussionist ‘Coco,’ is an exhilirating experience,” writes Ze’eva Cohen, professor emerita in dance at Princeton University. “Rarely do we witness two accomplished, classically trained artists delving into their cultural roots and identity by way of improvisation.”
Diaz, who grew up in Princeton, presents a performative lecture in the conference “Exploring Puerto Rican Heritage Stateside through Roots, Jazz, and Classical Music” on Saturday, May 14, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Her part, scheduled to begin at noon, is titled Improvising Identity: Bomba as a Point of Reference Between a Contemporary Dance Artist and a Percussionist in the Colloquium: Música in the United States: Puerto Rican Roots – Jazz – Classical Music. It will be in the Ida K. Lang Recital Hall, North Building, Hunter College. Free Registration for the Colloquium. For updated information http://www.centropr.hunter.cuny.edu or call 212-396-6545.
“It is captivating,” writes Cohen, “to be taken along their journey as they deeply ‘listen’ to each other and connect with issues of roots and identity via physical and mental symbiosis, beyond what is familiar and known. They take their found material and develop it through the improvisation to a layered, rich, and authentic performance that seems and feels fully formed.”
Coming to town — a conference based on a national prize that Princeton University awards, aiming to “promote harmony, understanding, and respect among people of different races by identifying and recognizing high school age students whose efforts have had a significant, positive effect on race relations in their schools or communities.” The Princeton Prize Symposium on Race is Friday and Saturday, April 29 and 30. Mickey Faigan, of Issues Management (based at Princeton Overlook) will open the conference on Friday, and the speakers include Michele Tuck-Ponder, who gives a workshop on 90-second elevator speeches. Saturday’s proceedings are open to the public. 
I’d also like to point out that Not in Our Town Princeton –– an interracial, interfaith group united to advance the cause of racial justice in Princeton — gives annual Unity Awards to Princeton High School students who have helped to carry out the NIOT Princeton mission statement: We are committed to speaking truth about “everyday racism” and other forms of prejudice and discrimination. Where there is conflict we promote reconciliation with open, honest engagement and mutual respect. Our goal is that Princeton will grow as a town where everyone is safe and respected.
Steve Kruse, center, outgoing PBAC Chair, on a fact-finding bike ride with Mayor Liz Lempert and members of the Princeton Traffic and Transportation Committee.
Princeton Comment 