Things to Do, Oct. 9-16, 2015
By Daniel Aloi
Birds and wind power
Bird migration researcher Bill Evans presents “The Impact of Wind Energy on Birds in Our Region: Fact Versus Fiction” at the next Cayuga Bird Club Meeting, Monday, Oct. 12 at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca. The meeting is free and open to the public.
Evans is director of Old Bird, a nonprofit organization focused on nocturnal bird migration research and education. He will give a synopsis of his work for wind developers and groups concerned about wind power in Ontario and New York state.
Drawing on his involvement with the Black Oak, Wolfe Island, Ostrander Point, Galloo Island, Maple Ridge and Cape Vincent wind projects, Evans will discuss the challenges of studying and mitigating regional impacts on birds from these and future wind energy projects.
The meeting begins at 7:15 p.m. with cookies and conversation. Bird club business begins at 7:30 p.m. followed by Evans’ presentation. Information: 800-843-2473, cornellbirds@cornell.edu
Food summit
The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station will host a food summit, “New York Loves Food,” Wednesday, Oct. 14 from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Jordan Hall, 614 W. North St., Geneva, bringing together Cornell experts, local economic development leaders, state-level economic planners and state legislators with representatives from food processing operations large and small.
The summit is open to the public; to reserve a seat, contact state Sen. Mike Nozzolio’s office at 315-568-9816 or 518-455-2366.
Aimed at spurring economic growth and job creation and helping farmers by encouraging food processing businesses in New York state, the summit will showcase the resources available from Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and its Ag Station in particular. Attendees will discuss opportunities for food processors and brainstorm ways to help them thrive. CALS Dean Kathryn Boor will discuss the state’s leadership role in food and farm innovation and moderate a panel of food processing industry leaders.
Participants also include CALS Associate Dean and Ag Station Director Susan Brown, state Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard Ball, associate professor of applied economics and management Todd Schmit, senior extension associate Elizabeth Bihn of Cornell’s Department of Food Science, Assemblyman Bill Magee ‘91, Nozzolio ’73 and state Sen. Patricia Ritchie.
‘Apu’ and India now
Cornell Cinema is showing newly restored versions of Satyajit Ray’s acclaimed “Apu Trilogy” in Willard Straight Theatre, as part of the film series “India: Then … and Now,” cosponsored with the South Asia Program.
The coming-of-age story is considered a masterpiece and put India on the world cinema map in the late 1950s. The trilogy begins with “Pather Panchali,” screening Oct. 16 and 18; followed by “Aparajito,” Oct. 23 and 25, and “The World of Apu ,” Oct. 30 and Nov. 1. Also in the series: “Rati Chakravyuh,” with guest filmmaker and visual artist Ashish Avikunthak, Thursday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m.; and “Court,” Nov. 12 and 15. The screening of “Rati Chakravyuh” is free; tickets for other films in the series are $5.50.
Cornell Cinema also hosts a free sneak preview of Danny Boyle’s new film “Steve Jobs,” Oct. 14 at 9 p.m. Open to Cornell students only; first-come, first-served, tickets required.
Chess saga
Norse scholar Nancy Marie Brown connects medieval Icelandic sagas with archaeology, art history, forensics and the history of board games in her new book, “Ivory Vikings.” She gives a book talk Oct. 15 at 4:30 p.m. in Carl A. Kroch Library room 2B48.
Brown researched the mystery of an ancient treasure cache uncovered by the sea on a beach in Scotland in the early 19th century – 93 chess pieces carved from walrus ivory and whales’ teeth between 1150-1200 A.D. Known as the Lewis Chessmen, they are among the most-visited objects in the British Museum (and are featured in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone”).
Brown presents a vivid history of the 400 years when Vikings ruled the North Atlantic, and brings to light the woman who carved the chessmen – 12th century artist Margret the Adroit.
Fluent in Icelandic and the author of several books about Iceland, science and sagas, Brown is a frequent visitor to Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, home to the Fiske Icelandic Collection, unrivaled in its resources for study of the medieval Nordic world.
Books will be available for purchase and signing, and light refreshments served. For information, contact rareref@cornell.edu.
Creative reading
Four alumni of Cornell’s graduate writing program are featured in a joint reading Thursday, Oct. 15 at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall.
Reading from their work will be fiction writer Siobhan Adcock, MFA ’04, author of “The Barter;” poet and essayist dawn lonsinger, MFA ’05, author of the 2012 Idaho Prize winner “Whelm” and recipient of the 2014 Greg Grummer Poetry Prize; fiction writer George McCormick, MFA ’07, a 2013 O. Henry Prize recipient and author of “Salton Sea” and “Inland Empire;” and poet Cori A. Winrock, MFA ’08, author of the Walt Whitman Award finalist “This Coalition of Bones.”
The reading is free and open to the public. Presented by the Department of English and the Creative Writing Program as part of the Fall 2015 Barbara & David Zalaznick Reading Series.
Above-ground archaeology
Sherene Baugher discusses the study of burial sites in a free public talk, “The Archaeology of American Cemeteries and Gravestones,” Thursday, Oct. 15 at 6 p.m. at The History Center in Tompkins County, Gateway Center, 401 E. State St., Ithaca. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition “In Memoriam: Cemeteries of Tompkins County.”
Cemeteries offer fixed points in time to examine changing attitudes toward death and dying. Those in the Northeast, especially in New York state, contain gravestones and memorial markers from as far back as the late 1600s. Baugher’s talk explores the cultural landscape of burial grounds, shaped by gender, race, ethnicity and class; and how archaeologists have examined such sites as the African Burial Ground in New York City.
Baugher is a professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Cornell Institute for Archaeology and Material Studies and is co-author of “The Archaeology of American Cemeteries and Gravemarkers” (2014). Before coming to Cornell in 1991, she was New York City’s first city archaeologist from 1980 to 1990, and undertook a study of its historic cemeteries.
She and her students have worked with community partners to excavate, preserve and interpret to the public such (non-burial) archaeological sites as Tutelo Park in Ithaca and the buried hamlet of Enfield Falls in Robert H. Treman State Park.
Words and music
Emeritus professor of history Richard Polenberg launches his new book on American folk songs by performing some of the songs and discussing the real people and historical events behind them Friday, Oct. 16 at 5 p.m. at Cornell University Press, 512 E. State St., Ithaca. The event is free and open to the public.
At “Richard Polenberg’s Folk Song History Jamboree,” he will discuss the book, “Hear My Sad Story: The True Tales That Inspired ‘Stagolee,’ ‘John Henry,’ and Other Traditional American Folk Songs,” and perform with the Burns Sisters. Light refreshments and craft beer will be served.
A Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell, Polenberg taught courses on American history, law and politics and retired as the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History in 2011. His other books include “One Nation Divisible: Class, Race and Ethnicity in the U.S. Since 1938” and (as co-author) “The American Century: A History of the United States Since the 1890s.”
Polenberg also reads from “Hear My Sad Story” Nov. 22 at 3 p.m. at Buffalo Street Books, Ithaca.
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