The public is invited to ‘Africanist Performance Weekend’ at Brown University with events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Artists from Africa, Haiti, and the diaspora, as well as refugees from the Providence-Boston community and local social entrepreneurs come together to celebrate and investigate performance’s ability to enact social change. This Rhythm of Change Festival has too many events and workshops scheduled to enumerate here, with politics and theater as well as the music. But check out the workshops in Burundi dance, Rwandan dance, Afro-Cuban dance, Haitian dance, and Djembe and Djoun Djoun drumming. African rhythms are so compelling and irresistible. Also on the schedule for Saturday night is an ‘Africa for Haiti’ benefit concert at Sayles Hall. Individual events cost $10 for students, $15 for the general public, and weekend packages are available. Tickets can be purchased ahead of time, or at the door (cash or check only) locations vary — check The Rhythm of Change Festival site for all the details.

Good work by Alex Bell writing for The Brown Daily Herald concerning the decision of Brown University President Ruth Simmons to step down from the Board of Directors at Goldman Sachs on which she has served since 2000. This report was picked up today by the ProJo who also focused on her decision to step down. Maybe I’m way behind the curve on this one, but for me the story was — Ruth Simmons and Goldman Sachs?!! Not only is she on the board, but she sits on the compensation committee as well, and has been well-compensated over the years. In the article she states her intention to stay on as chairman of the advisory board on the Goldman Sachs ‘10,000 Women Initiative’ — the kind of cynical corporate window dressing to which Simmons should be ashamed to attach her name. (And yes, President Simmons, all this does reflect poorly on the university.) Last July Matt Taibi writing for Rolling Stone (‘Inside The Great American Bubble Machine’) described the Goldman Sachs modus operandi.

The formula is relatively simple: Goldman positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble, selling investments they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast sums from the middle and lower floors of society with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies the bank throws at political patronage. Finally, when it all goes bust, leaving millions of ordinary citizens broke and starving, they begin the entire process over again, riding in to rescue us all by lending us back our own money at interest, selling themselves as men above greed, just a bunch of really smart guys keeping the wheels greased.

So the 10,000 women in Ruthie’s little initiative will certainly have their work cut out for them. . .  supporting and caring for the 10,000,000 impoverished, unemployed women, bankrupted by the other Goldman Sachs ‘intitiatives’.

Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, will be in town Tuesday night as part of  the continuing ‘Year of India’ celebration at Brown University.

Both a pop culture icon and a provocative proponent of free speech, the Indian-born British writer was named one of the world’s top 100 public intellectuals by Foreign Policy magazine in 2005. He received a Queen’s Knighthood for services to literature in 2007.

Plus, there’s that whole fatwa thing. He appeared as a guest last October on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and apparently Mr. Rushdie hung around for a while taping some very silly comedy bits which ran later in the week. The mantle of literary erudition sits lightly on his shoulders — in this segment he discussed his love of comics (he may do a graphic novel) and the difference between red kryptonite and green kryptonite. Tuesday’s lecture, “Public Events, Private Lives: Literature and Politics in the Modern World”, begins at 5:30pm, and is free and open to the public. Mr. Rushdie will take questions after the talk. (Video after the jump)

Free, doors at 4:30pm, Salomon Center, College Green, Brown University

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Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics for the musical West Side Story and I think I know all of them by heart. And that is the extent of my Sondheim knowledge. But he has been a dominant force in the American theater scene for decades and has legions of passionate fans. On Saturday New York Times columnist Frank Rich will moderate a conversation with Sondheim in an event sponsored by the Creative Arts Council at Brown University.

Actually, Frank Rich has a greater claim on my affection. I used to read his stuff even when he was the New York Times drama critic, not because I was ever going to go see a play, but because his writing is so damn good. Saturday’s event is open to the public — first come, first seated. Guests will have an opportunity to submit written questions for Mr. Sondheim at the event.

Saturday, 8pm to 10pm, Salomon Center, 69 Waterman Street, Room 101, info at 863.1934

Stocking stuffer idea of the day — stroopwafels! A Dutch Brown student has seen a gaping hole in the sorely underdeveloped American snack food market and filled it. As a freshman, Abhishek Pruisken had brought some traditional Dutch waffle cookies from home and they were a big hit. Finding none available stateside, he and his friend Erik Ornitz started fiddling around in their dorm room and now it’s a real business and taking off.

All the Van Wafels baking is now carried out in the kitchen at the Hope Club on Benevolent Street which must be interesting. All I know is these cookies may be the most successful point-of-purchase impulse buy ever sold at Blue State Coffee. At $2/package of two, they are flying off the shelves almost like in a Dutch coffee shop, but without their synergistic marketing advantages. (They are also available at George’s Deli, Meeting Street Cafe, the Blue Room at Brown and pretty much anywhere Abhishek can get his foot in the door because he is charming and adorable and probably could have sold us wooden shoes, but these things really are delish.)

All of this has reminded me of the famous David Sedaris story of ‘Six to Eight Black Men’ an account of the utterly insane St. Nicholas Christmas tradition of the Netherlands, which I have to ask Abhishek about next time I see him. (Nutty video accompanies a David Sedaris reading of the story after the jump.)

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I have no real knowledge as to what this will be like, but I think it will include musical works and unpredictable soundscapes that will challenge/blow your mind and maybe something to look at. . . pretty sure that’s reasonably accurate. The evening’s events include: “Fortron-3000″ performed by Jordan Bartee, Alexander Eizenberg, Bevin Kelley and Taehee Kim; “Riddle of the Sphinx” with Mary Burge, Nipun Kumar and Hans Vermy; and “Organ Auction” with Laura Alesci, Miguel Elizalde and Lin Zhang. The entry walk leading to the hall is on the east side of Hope Street, north of Young Orchard.

free, 8pm to 10pm, Saturday, open to the public, Grant Recital Hall, Brown University, Hope Street

I meant to post this earlier, but still time. Check out Doris to Darlene, the new show at the Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Department at Brown. the next show to go up for the Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Dept at Brown University. This show a Senior Showcase Performance — it’s directed by a student (Chris Tyler ‘10), and completely student-created, with only budget, space, and mentoring from staff and faculty.

A beautifully brainy valentine to the transformative potential of music, Jordan Harrison MFA 03’s Doris to Darlene is a soulfully crafted trio of love stories that follows the transpositions of one timeless song across the ages. In the candy-colored 1960s, biracial schoolgirl Doris is molded into pop star Darlene by a whiz-kid record producer who culls a top-ten hit out of Richard Wagner’s “Liebestod.”

Tickets are $7 for students, $12 for staff/faculty/seniors, and $17 for everybody else, and are available at 401.863.2838 or brown.edu/tickets.

Four shows at 8pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 2pm, Leeds Theatre, Waterman Street

Sarah Vowell is speaking tonight at Brown University promoting the paperback edition of her book The Wordy Shipmates which I am reading right now and enjoying very much. She has an original take on the whole Puritan thang and where Roger Williams fits in (or doesn’t) with the early New Englanders. (Vowell has also written a column in opposition to the changing of our official state name.) Happily her quirky radio persona does not adversely infect her writing style. She has a knack for synthesizing events, while pulling out telling details and amusing tidbits, in a way that helps illuminate the broader picture. I wonder if anyone is taking her to Prospect Terrace . . .  or the State House rotunda . . . or Williams Sonoma.

7pm to 9pm, Brown University, Thursday, MacMillan Hall, Room 117, Thayer Street

Online-only, literary mag Wag’s Revue just launched their third issue since March, when the four editors were seniors at Brown, and errant friends and housemates of mine.

The issue includes an interview with George Saunders; a short story by Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish; a nonfiction rainbow of words, marshmallow Peeps, comics, video and audio; and a range of experimental translations in the poetry section.”

They’ve been well-received by the July/August issue of Poets and Writers, the Literary MagNet column, The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog, January Magazine, Live Nude Books, and Fiction Writers Review, among others.

Note also this chance to win some dollar bills through your skill with pen and paper:

“The arrival of Issue 3 heralds the opening of the Wag’s Revue Winter Contests in fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The winners receive a $500 prize and publication in Issue 4, alongside whatever luminaries we can muster for that edition. Find submission guidelines here.”

Paper sculptor, Kirsten Hassenfeld, will speak tonight at the Bell Gallery at Brown, presumably to discuss her insanely gorgeous installation of giant, lacy, illuminated paper baubles, trinkets and bibelots. . . and where to buy really good scissors.  Also on display are several of her fanciful and glossy, blue and white sculptures — if Gaudi took a trip to Delft by way of a coffee shop in Amsterdam — which the gallery insists are made of paper but your eyes will tell you otherwise. (And yes, she is a distant relative of the ‘My Little Pony’ Hassenfelds.) This installation is up through November 1, with additional works through November 14 in her New Works: Sculpture and Drawings at Cade Tompkins Editions/Projects at 189 Hope Street.

Artist’s lecture and reception 5:30pm, Friday, Bell Gallery, College Street

GQ names Brown the douchiest college of all.

I must confess, this poster stopped me dead in my tracks.  If you are unfamiliar with South by Ernest Shackleton, the account of his insanely grueling two-year expedition in the Antarctic, then it won’t mean much. I’m assuming that this Sophie Shackleton ‘09 is a descendant and I am wildly curious about the show.

SoloFest2009 at Brown University is already under way, and runs through May 3rd. I have not found a description of this particular performance.  Clearly she means to reference her famous ancestor’s monumental adventure of survival, but for all I know it’s an avant garde interpretive dance. I just don’t know.

For the uninitiated (and it is a cult) South would make a fantastic beach read for the summer, as it makes you feel very very cold. Halfway through I had already lost two fingers and the tip of my nose. And ladies, as you read about these uncomplaining, brave and resourceful men, look around you.  A young man of my acquaintance recently fussed about the terrible pollen… just saying.

Free, Friday, Strasberg Studio off Leeds Courtyard at Brown
7:00pm and 10:00pm — ‘Mr. Glass’ by Jonathan Dent
8:30pm and 11:30pm — ‘South’ by Sophie Shackleton

Kid Notorious is coming to town… and oh yeah, that Nicholson fella. (I still don’t trust either of these guys.) The Ivy Film Festival, the largest student-run film festival in North America, will be held at Brown University from Tuesday through Sunday. In addition to featuring original work of student filmmakers and screenwriters from around the world, the festival includes advance screenings of four feature films, and panel discussions and workshops with a range of film industry insiders. All events are open to the public, but tickets are required for some screenings and panel discussions.

Already in the news is the keynote event on Saturday, a panel discussion with Jack Nicholson, Robert Evans and Brad Grey. I think it’s safe to say that tickets for that will go fast. For those unfamiliar with the charm offensive that is Robert Evans, check out his documentary, The Kid Stays in the Picture, a movie version of his autobiography, which he also narrates (NYT review). As former head of Paramount Pictures in the 70’s, he’s got quite a story to tell. He’s ridiculously chatty and informal, as if your good friend was telling you stories, only they were actually interesting.  He also created an animated version of this life in 2003 for Comedy Central called Kid Notorious (with Slash as his kooky neighbor). This was not seen by enough people.

I also have to mention Friday night’s advanced IMAX screening of Star Trek, 7pm at the Providence Place Mall. (Tickets will be distributed at the Ivy Film Festival table on the Main Green of Brown University, from 11am to 3pm, Tuesday through Thursday).

Finally, may I have a word with the crew putting on the Saturday event in Salomon? Last spring I saw Martin Scorsese in this same room and it was a great afternoon. BUT it was so hot and airless in that place that finally Mr. Scorsese had to speak up, and it looks like this Saturday is going to be quite warm.  Please get the air conditioning up and running — I don’t think we want to make Mr. Nicholson unhappy.

Showing tonight, Tuesday, 7pm at the Avon Cinema, is the film Adam, just shown at Sundance and favorably reviewed.

Festival runs April 21 through April 26. Full schedule of screenings and events at Ivy Film Festival.

Officials at Brown will neither confirm nor deny the rumor, but according to The Providence Journal actress Emma Watson will be attending Brown University this fall (perhaps she has confused the Black Arts with Black Studies). No matter, at Brown she can create her own curriculum, maybe some post-racial geek-friendly amalgam.

There it is in The New York Times on page C2.  Mocking me. Today’s crossword puzzle was constructed by Brown sophomore, Joey Weissbrot ‘11.  How do you get that smart that young?  What was I doing as a sophomore in college? No really, I’m asking.  Mr. Weissbrot was one of the guiding forces behind the newly created Brown Puzzling Association (along with Natan Last and Dustin Foley) inspired by his internship last summer at the home of Will Shortz, crossword puzzle editor at the NYT.  (Emmy Liss of The Brown Daily Herald wrote up last Saturday’s first annual puzzle contest with a nice picture of Natan). I can’t link to today’s puzzle as they don’t give that away for free ($39.95 a year) but you can access their wordplay blog where the Brown boys get a mention (and I forgot that Dustin also had a puzzle in the Monday edition).  Both these puzzles will look very familiar to participants in Saturday’s contest. So, while these annoying overachievers make me feel bad about myself, they make me feel great about the future of the country. These guys are awesome.

Sandor Bodo of The Providence Journal taped part of yesterday’s event at Brown.  It might seem that Mr. Shortz is speaking during the competition; he spoke before the puzzles were handed out. Click here. According to the article in the Sunday ProJo Saturday’s turnout exceeded all expectations.

A crossword puzzle competition is not your typical collegiate revelry. But the tournament at Brown University on Saturday filled an auditorium. In all, 300 showed up –– more than 200 penciling letters in tiny squares.

“I thought there’d be 10 people here,” said junior Jill Lambiase, 21, of East Greenwich, whose two-member team won a prize in the tournament.

Also mentioned in the article was the periodic table on the wall of the auditorium. That would not normally be a problem except that one of the puzzle clues asked for the element represented by ‘Pb’!  I demand a recount.