To open the student-curated exhibition Jews and American Comics: The New Generations, noted comic artist and director of the Center for Cartoon Studies, James Sturm, will give a keynote address and participate in a panel discussion that will explore Jewish themes in comics strips and comic books, and the ways that Jews have shaped this popular American art form. The panel will also include Jason Lutes, a 1991 RISD graduate and artist of the renowned “Berlin Series,” and Sara Rosenbaum* class of 2000, comic artist and former Providence Journal staff writer.

5 pm, Thursday, Salomon Center, room 001. Reception and exhibit opening follows immediately at 6:30 pm at the John Nicholas Brown Center, 357 Benefit Street

*Sara and I went to see the Darkness at Lupo’s four years ago, and despite the fact that I was nearly crushed to death, and nobody cared, and I almost totally died, it was a lot of fun.  She dashed off this piece to memorialize the physical challenges she faced that night.

Are we cool with this?  I am always suspicious when Brown University starts making alterations to the landscape.  Why are they cutting down perfectly healthy trees on Arlington Avenue?  Is this to give residents a better view of the eye-poaching Kleig lights that go nova for sporting events? Do they have evil designs on this side of the historic Dexter Asylum wall since their plans to destroy the Hope Street side were foiled?  I am particularly suspicious since they have recently planted some 10-foot trees in the area and they will say they have ‘replaced’ the mature trees they are cutting down.  How far down the wall are they going? Aren’t we trying to increase the tree canopy in the city?

(Update: City Councilman Cliff Wood has looked into this and put my fears to rest (this was just a couple of trees). He has spoken with City Forester Doug Still who speaks highly of the Brown University tree program, so that is reassuring.  My thanks to both Mr. Still and Mr. Wood for the quick response.)

Brown’s Focus On Africa series is packing it in this week with a lunchtime screening at The Watson Institute for International Relations. South African documentarist and filmmaker Khalo Matabane, who’s mini series When We Were Black, screens at 12pm (pt.1) and 6pm (pt.2), will conduct a discussion of his work at 7pm following the second screening in the Institute’s Joukowsky Forum at 111 Thayer St.

This evening Brown’s Department of Africana Studies continues its post-election week run of free public events with contemporary Black intellectuals and artists. Shola Lynch, a young filmmaker who in 2004 completed a documentary on the legendary Shirley Chisholm, will be joined by Ray Watson of the Mt. Hope Neighborhood Association and renowned professor of Africana Studies, and author of the seminal Black Noise, Tricia Rose. It all goes down for FREE at Salomon Hall on Brown’s main green at 7pm.

The complete schedule is here.

Monday, November 10th
Convocation: “We Have Every Right to Be Against this War”

Salomon 001, 7-9 pm
Pre-convocation Dinner Faculty Advising Fellow Home 22 Benevolent Street, 5-6:30 (RSVP to miles_hovis@brown.edu)

Chhaya Choum of CAAAV (Organizing Asian Communities in New York City) speaks about her experience as a war refugee in the US and why people of color, especially Southeast Asians, must be at the forefront of the anti-war movement.

Tuesday, November 11th
YELLOW, BROWN, and BLACK: Resisting Xenophobia, Fighting Raids and Deportation

Panel (6-8pm) Salomon 001, 6-9 pm
Action Meeting (8-9pm) Faculty Fellow Home on 38 Charlesfield

A two part event: First, a cross-cultural panel of immigrants’ rights organizers, lawyers, anti-deportation activists, and family members of deportees in order in a dialog about our country’s increasing xenophobia and anti-immigrant legislation. Second, a student immigrant organizer leads an action meeting to begin organizing Brown students against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Thursday, October 23rd, 7:00pm

Join urban grower RJ Ruppenthal for an evening workshop and talk. Author of Fresh Food From Small Places: The Square Inch Gardeners Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting, Mr. Ruppenthal will talk from over 30 years of experience growing fresh food on rooftops, window sills, garages, and everywhere in between. Combining traditional methods and creative space-saving techniques, Ruppenthal will demonstrate how you can grow up to 20% of your fresh food, even if you live in a city appartment!  Come find out how:

Thursday, October 23rd, 7:00pm
Brown University: Smith-Bounanno Hall, Room G18
95 Cushing St. Providence, RI (off Brown St.)

*Sponsored by the Brown Sustainable Food Initiative

7pm in 115 Macmillan Hall (on Thayer, next to Science Library), 23 year-old Iraq vet Kris Goldsmith speaks about his experience fighting in Iraq:

Kris enlisted in the Army at age 18 and was deployed to Iraq in January 2005.  He soon found out that the American military presence was unwelcom by most Iraqis, and he was stuneed by the inability of the US military to repair the destruction caused by the invasion and address the needs of the Iraqi people.  Kris is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

And he’s the youngest veteran ever to have testified before Congress.

Wow. You mean to tell me this kid was walking the streets of Providence for four years and I never noticed him?

This month’s Vanity Fair has a ‘Fashion Rocks’ supplement featuring Dhani Harrison modeling this fall’s very cool hippie/bohemian look. (Yes, those are furs, do not write to me. I do not buy, wear or trap small animals.) But I think we can all agree, no DNA test needed to determine this guy’s paternity. Yikes.

Only a few minutes into the movie Iron Man, Tony Stark, the amoral munitions titan, is barraged with inconvenient questions from an aggressive female Vanity Fair reporter. He dismissively sums her up by assuming she attended Berkeley, to which she responds “Brown”. So, like it or not, Brown University is clearly shorthand for a certain type of left-wing bleeding-heart crusading do-gooder (and I don’t think that pie-lady helped). Okay, fine, that is nothing new — but then she jumps right into the sack with the guy! Completely betraying your core belief system just cuz he’s rich and hot? Berkeley maybe, but not our Brown gals. Ladies… man your pies!

(One more point, riding a Segway in a movie is code for — douchebag. If also bald — evil douchebag.)

Your last chance to see this spring’s festival of dance at Brown Univerity’s Stuart Theatre (Waterman Street) is at 2PM today. Tickets start at $7.

Think you wouldn’t enjoy a freaking dance recital? Think again. Weird doesn’t even begin to describe the 6 dance numbers that make up this event. Strange, like Dr. Suess Meets A Couple of Drunk African Starving kids strange? Better. So Freaking Bizarre, And Yet Beautiful, That It Made My Head Spin? Yeah, that’s about right. more »

UPDATE: Footage, courtesy of the Greenwash Gorillas themselves… even as this was a pretty amazing spectacle, the footage kind of makes me want to give Tom a big hug. While I understand the criticisms of Friedman’s work, I wonder if this was an effective way to get the message across, or whether this merely reflects poorly on the University… thoughts? Could the pie-throwers have raised their dissent during the Q&A with as much flair?

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv6nvMUq10U]

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman had just begun his Earth Day lecture at Brown last night, when Molly Little ‘08.5 and a colleague let him know what they thought of his work. The Brown Daily Herald reports:

A female audience member ran on stage last night and threw a green pie at New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman [...]. The woman had been sitting in the south side of the auditorium’s front row when she pulled the pie out of a Brown Bookstore plastic bag that had been tucked in a red backpack and leapt out of her seat.

more »

The twiggy comfort station on the Brown Campus is unisex no more. Last week’s storm knocked over one of those classy elms, which in turn smashed the installation clear in two. That must have been something to see — Mighty Jehovah raining down justice on the wasted fornicators and urinators who had defiled the humble temple. At any rate, it appears that the remaining two pieces will stay put until sometime this summer.

Brown University will be testing a new emergency siren today some time between noon and 1:00 PM today. It is unknown at this time whether it will be too loud, too long, or both. It will consist of a tone, followed by a voice message (probably Morgan Freeman again).

Might I suggest that if Brown University is concerned about the safety of its students it should conduct a seminar at freshman orientation called ‘How to Cross the Street’. I offer my services and have a little something worked up. It’s called “Angels and Watermen: Deconstructing myths of the male power construct/learning to express ones individuality and impotence outside the active lanes of commerce in the post-industrial age.” Readings from Joseph Campbell and the Division of Traffic Engineering. The Muppet Babies film ‘Cross That Street’ will be shown. Short field trip with trust exercises. So, don’t forget… jarring and startling noise between noon and 1PM. Not a good time for a bris.