Brown University has received an award of $15.5 million from the National Science Foundation for the purpose of creating a mathematics research institute, the eighth of its kind in the country. The Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics will be located on South Main Street and will be headed by mathematics professor Jill Pipher — a girl!

ICERM will leverage internationally recognized programs in applied and pure mathematics and computer science to create long-term research programs and scholarly conferences to attract the world’s best minds in computation and experimental math. It is another step forward in Rhode Island’s development of a knowledge economy.

Hooray, more smart people around town. The image here is the visual expression of a Mandelbrot set defined as,

. . .  the set of complex values of c for which the orbit of 0 under iteration of the complex quadratic polynomial zn+1 = zn2 + c remains bounded. That is, a complex number, c, is in the Mandelbrot set if, when starting with z0 = 0 and applying the iteration repeatedly, the absolute value of zn never exceeds a certain number (that number depends on c) however large n gets.

But you already knew that. Groovy Mandelbrot videos after the jump.

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Everyone else should avoid driving around the East Side today. The Brown Commencement activities will involve Thayer and Waterman Streets, heading down the hill to the First Baptist Church on North Main Street. What they won’t involve is Nelson Mandela who will be accepting his honorary degree in absentia. The role of Nelson Mandela will be played by Morgan Freeman (’Nurse Betty’). It’s just as well, having these two together on the same stage might have been gravitas overload.

Head over to the Main Green (between Waterman, Prospect, George Streets) of the Brown campus on Saturday for an all-day art installation thing. Let’s assume that it is free and open to the public.

GREEN SCREEN is a seven-hour exhibition/event of site-specific, interactive sculpture, installations and performances which will be held in the central hub of Brown University’s campus; the main green. GREEN SCREEN will explore how art can form a dialogue with the space it inhabits and how this dialogue can both reconfigure spatial interactions and create entirely new environments. Extending from early afternoon to evening, Green Screen will also feature a series of programs to complement the pieces, including but not limited to: artist talks, performances, video screenings, a reception and curator-led tours.

Apparently the Brown University Folk Festival will be held simultaneously below on Lincoln Field, closer to Thayer Street, and Sayles Hall.

2pm to 9pm, Saturday, May 1, info about works and artists at FB

I’m kind of late on this announcement since the Ivy Film Festival has already started and you only have about an hour to get over to ‘Hesher’, a movie starring Natalie Portman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt who absolutely must start filming the ‘Keanu Reeves Story’ asap. So stop reading and just go.

(The IFF runs through the weekend, culminating Sunday evening with a screening of ‘Some Like It Hot’ on Lincoln Field Green.)

Hesher, Thursday, 9pm, Barus Holley room 166, 182 Hope Street

Starting today, filmmakers from Jamaica, Ghana, Cameroon and Cuba will arrive on Brown’s campus to discuss their films and life’s work with Providence audiences. The 2010 Africana Film Festival features a retrospective of work by The Black Audio Film Collective. John Akomfrah (Ghana/UK) and Lina Gopaul (Jamaica/UK), founding members of the collective and current members of Smoking Dog Films, have chronicled and cross-examined Britain’s new multicultural reality since 1983. Their best-known work, Handsworth Songs (1986), will screen prior to their newest work, Genome Chronicles (2008) at 6:45 p.m. on Saturday, April 17.  It is regarded as emblematic of a turn towards archival and documentation in recent art. Gopaul and Akomfrah will join filmmakers Gloria Rolando, Cuba’s foremost female filmmaker, and Jean-Marie Teno (Cameroon) for a panel discussion moderated by Professor Anthony Bogues of Brown’s Africana Studies Department at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 18th.

In addition to being able to hear directly from filmmakers who rarely if ever make their way to New England, let alone the US, Africana Film Festival audiences will have unprecedented opportunities to view films that are seldom seen in North America. Screenings of Sex, Okra & Salted Butter (Mali), Wrestling Ground (Senegal) and No Time To Die (Ghana) as well other shorts and features from Kenya, Burkina-Faso, and Chad make for a diverse and exciting look at the world of Afro-Diasporic cinema.

The Black Lavender Experience kicks off with a Brown Pride Month convocation performance by Mangos with Chili. Founded in 2006 by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ms. Cherry Galette, Mangos with Chili is a touring cabaret of queer and trans people-of-color performance artists, offering unforgettable performance in celebration of their lives, stories, survival, and the legacies they are creating for future generations of queer and trans people-of-color. Their performance on Wednesday, April 7th at 9pm in the George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space precedes a weekend of staged readings and conversations inspired by the work of Isissa Komada-John ‘10, Andre Thompson ‘05, Ione Lloyd and E. Patrick Johnson. Click HERE for the full schedule.

Starting this weekend the Sock and Buskin theater group and TAPS kick off a series of events in conjunction with its production of The Cook written by Eduardo Machado and directed by Kym Moore.

The play runs Thursday, April 8th through the 11th, and again from the 15th through the 18th; shows start Thursday through Saturday at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm. On April 9th, immediately following that night’s performance of The Cook, director Kym Moore, dramaturge Patricia Ybarra, and Brown Professor of Comparative Literature Esther Whitfield will speak to the audience, answering questions and discussing the show. On April 10th, Ashamu Dance Studio, writer, actress, and performance artist Carmelita Tropicana will present her show Cabaret a la Cubana.

Full poster of events after the jump.  Tickets are only $7 for students, group discounts are available.  Contact the box office at 863.2838, or boxoffice@brown.edu. More info at TAPS.

Play run begins Thursday, Leeds Theatre, Lyman Hall, Brown Campus off Waterman Street

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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.”