Posts by Suzy Weiss

‘Queer Expressions in Latin American Cinema’

5:30 P.M., List 120

Director, writer and actor Julia Solomonoff, director and writer Javier Fuentes-Leon and Harvard gender studies professor Bradley Epps will lead a panel discussion before a showing of “Dzi Croquettes” — a documentary about a Brazilian theater group which used performance to address the country’s political climate during the 1970s — as part of the New England Festival of Ibero American Cinema (see below).

Ibero American film festival

For other Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese films playing at various times tonight, check out the cable car cinema (“Memories of Overdevelopment” at 7:30, “Latinos in Shorts” at 9:30). If you’ve never been, it has comfy couches. Or if you’d rather stay on Thayer Street, head to the Avon (“Bad Day for Fishing” at 8:30, “The Shame” at 10:30). Both theaters will charge $5 with student ID.

The Time of Your Life

7:30 P.M., Citizens Bank Theater (87 Empire Street), free with student ID

‘The Time of Your Life’ by William Saroyan is an award-winning play about the offbeat frequenters of a San Francisco bar. This production by the Brown/Trinity MFA program will also run tomorrow at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Providence Poetry Slam writing workshop

7 P.M, AS220 Gallery Space

Come downtown to share your writing and get nonjudgmental feedback from other poets and writers in your city, or just hear others’ ideas and meet non-Brunonians.

A Lie of the Mind

8 P.M., Leeds Theater in Lyman Hall

Freshman and transfers get free admission tonight to this production, put on by Sock & Buskin and the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies,  about two broken families in the American west. But if you are a Brown veteran you can still get tickets here.

‘Riddles of the Sphinx’ screening and Q&A

7 P.M., Rhode Island Hall room 108

Experienced archeologist, Egyptologist and Director of the Giza Mapping Project Mark Lehner is coming to campus to talk about this Nova special on ancient egyptian engineering techniques that allowed for the construction of the Great Sphinx.

A  screening of “Little Town of Bethlehem,” a documentary about peace activists in Israel and Palestine, and panel discussion with the filmmaker and one of the featured activists took place in the Salomon Center last night though the Watson Institute for International Studies and the University of Rhode Island.

“Little Town of Bethlehem” sounds like the name of a Christmas special to Western ears, but in reality the town is the hub of Palestinian culture, conflict and, even more so now, reconciliation.

The American imagination also would pit Palestinian Christian Sami Awad, Palestinian Muslim Ahmad Al’Azzeh and Israeli Jew Yonatan Shapira against one another. They are members of famously warring communities. Yet they star in this documentary as peace activists. What drew them all to the film is that they believe in the lessons we all learned in preschool and later discounted as idealistic. They care about the wellbeing, security and sanity of people — all types of people. And they recognize that more violence is not the answer to violence, though they have seen it treated as such.  [Read more →]

Midnight Madness

10 p.m.-12 a.m., OMAC

You are invited (probably over Facebook already) to a campus-wide party involving beach balls, glow sticks, lasers, and other colorful/fluorescent shenanigans. Warning: if you stay until midnight, you may go mad.

95.5 WBRU Dunkin Donuts Summer Concert Series presents COHEED and CAMBRIA / Manchester Orchestra / The Dear Hunter

7 p.m. (doors at 6), Bank of America City Center (Kennedy Plaza), $28

Tickets are still available for the last of BRU’s summer series, featuring MTV-award-winning new wave rock headliner Coheed and Cambria, danceable indie rock act Manchester Orchestra and The Dear Hunter, Boston-based band of similar sensibilities, not to be confused with Deerhunter.

Sex@Brown

7 p.m., Saloman 101

Don’t get too excited — this is a lecture. But on a taboo, provocative and entertaining topic, to be sure. This annual discussion is traditionally popular among freshmen, who will learn about “doing what you desire, not what you’re just okay with,” as speaker Alexis Saccoman ’04 advises. Saccoman speaks with compassion and withholds judgment, once beginning the talk with, “Now we’re going to talk about some sexy shit!!”

First Friday

8pm-12:30am, Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center

Excuse me for being meta, but the semester’s first First Friday includes a “Brown’s Got Talent” orientation show, followed by a concert by the Brown Band and then dance lessons from Brown’s own Attitude, ImPulse and Ballroom Dance. Alternatively, visitors can bond with new and old classmates over food, games, make stress balls making and/or  “The Office.”

Free Vegetarian Dinner at West House

6:30 pm, 91 Brown St. (corner of Brown and Meeting)

Learn about and mooch off Brown’s Environmental Program House during their weekly Friday open dinner.

9 pm, AS220, $6

If you feel like venturing off campus and communing with the city and the weather isn’t too much of an impediment, trying seeing some experimental indie bands and musicians at this downtown arts collective.

Don't be sad; there's plenty to do. (Photo from “Into the Woods”) Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald

GREEN SCREEN exhibition
2 p.m.-9 p.m. Main Green, free
Interactive sculpture, artist talks, screenings, installations and performances will flood the Main Green this afternoon and evening. This exploration of interactions between art and its surroundings is brought to you by the Creative Arts Council and the Department of Modern Culture and Media.

Attitude Dance Company’s 6th Annual Spring Show
7 p.m. (doors open 6:30) Alumnae Hall, $7 at door
Want to see some dance with attitude? Well, now you can in multiple senses of the word. This performance group, which choreographs pieces ranging from hip-hop to Chinese folk and musical theater, will showcase original dances in their last show of the season.

Musical Forum presents “Into the Woods”
5 p.m. and 10 p.m. Production Workshop, contact Box Office for tickets
Get tickets while you still can because this Sondheim musical akin to fairy tale fan fiction is selling out quickly. As Cinderella puts it, “Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.”  If you already have plans for the evening, perhaps you can still make it to PW at 10 p.m. Then again, go to the 5 p.m. show if you’d rather get “into the woods and out of the woods and home before dark.” Or stop by Sunday or Monday at 8 p.m. Just don’t wear any golden slippers. The baker and his wife need some in order to have a kid.

Brown University Folk Festival
All day and night, Lincoln Field, free
This annual amalgamation of concerts, workshops and sales synthesizes appearances by Brown and Providence singers, musicians and bands. Catch the Ghanaian drum workshop at 3 p.m. or the contra dance at 9 p.m.

Or start your own nursery rhyme sharing in honor of Mother Goose Day.

Brown Stand Up Comics Present: THE END Show

9:00 p.m. MacMillan 117, free

If you have not yet caught this year’s stand-up comics in performance, this is your last chance to hear routines from graduating seniors and a surprise professional guest comedian. Comedy shows are always fun, but especially so when you can relate to what the comedians are burning and satirizing.

No Comment

7:00 p.m. George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space, Churchill House

The Department of Africana Studies’ Rites and Reason Theatre presents a story of news, the media, sexual assault and power, written by Kathleen Braine ’11 and directed by Adjunct Lecturer in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Connie Crawford. The play will show again tomorrow at the same time and 3 p.m. Sunday.

Brown University Orchestra concert

8 p.m. Sayles Hall, $2 w/ Brown or RISD ID

According to some ancient Mayan mythology, we are living in the fifth world. Five is also the fifth Fibonacci number. In addition, it is the number of many famous symphonies, which has served as inspiration for this year’s orchestra selections. The orchestra’s final performance will feature Debussy’s “Iberia,” Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 1″ and the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony.”

And for the sake of May Day, remember to say “rabbit rabbit” at midnight. Yeah, it’s a superstition, but I wouldn’t take any chances.

VISIONS release party

8 p.m. Salomon 101

This celebration of another successful issue of “VISIONS,” Brown’s Asian and Asian American literary and visual art magazine, will include musical entertainment from Harmonic Motion and Archipelag-a, poetry readings by contributers and free food from Thayer Street eateries.

Take Back the Night

9 p.m. march outside Faunce, 10 p.m. speak-out Smith-Bunano 106

Today’s “Take Back the Night” events are part of an international movement to spread awareness of sexual violence and protest its disturbing prevalence and large-scale invisibility. The issue of sexual assault, though a solemn one, is all too relevant to college students and others across demographics. A march around campus will take place, followed by a discussion including those who want to share their stories, as well as those who want to listen to others and gain a fuller understanding of their experiences.

Can Mindful Consumerism reverse the Ecological Meltdown?

8 p.m. MacMillan 117, free w/ Brown or RISD ID

Internationally recognized psychologist Daniel Goleman, author of “Emotional Intelligence,” just may have the answer to this profound question about consumerism and the environment. Goleman also will sign copies of his recently published book, “Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything.”

Or spend some time doing something else to improve the environment — it’s the least you can do in honor of Japanese Greenery Day. The Spring “Weekend wars” may be over, my friends, but this is a cause any tree-hugging hippy will find worth fighting for (please excuse my compulsions to pun).

Ivy Film Festival: advanced screening of “Sympathy for Delicious”

5:30 p.m-7:30 p.m., MacMillan 117, free

A Q&A with writer and star Christopher Thorton and producer Andrew Renzi will follow this Sundance award-winning film, also starring Mark Ruffalo, Orlando Bloom and Laura Linney. Right afterward, come to the Ivy Film Festival Awards Ceremony presented by Paramount Pictures in Alumnae Hall. Then head on down to Fish Co. with your Brown ID for the after party 10:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m.

Revenge of the WORD!s

8:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m., Rites and Reasons Theatre, free

The words strike back, and with a vengeance. What they are avenging is unclear, but they’re not the type of words I would mess with — and there are a lot of them too, with 30 performers throughout the course of the weekend. Attendees will also probably abound, so arrive early to hear (and see) poems about justice, philosophy and chewing with your mouth open.

As You Like It

10:00 p.m., Lincoln Field, free

“All the world’s a stage” this weekend, or at least all of Lincoln Field, thanks to Shakespeare on the Green. If you can’t make it tonight, there’s also the option to “fleet the time carelessly” at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Brown-RISD Drag Show

8:00-10:30 p.m., RISD Auditorium, free

The title is pretty self-explanatory: watch each queen strut his/her/phe’s stuff as part of Pride Series 2010: Imagining Queer. A sex toy raffle and the release of queer literary and art journal The Agenda also take place at the annual drag show. Though not required, it is suggested that attendees wear occasion-appropriate attire and bring a donation to Providence Youth Movement’s Queer Program “SeaQue!”

And if you can, try to squeeze in some time to accomplish chores, errands and other tasks you’ve been postponing for a blah day.

Alas, poor Mel.

Hamlet
8:00 p.m, Van Wickle Gates
You’ve probably read it at some point during high school, if not college, or at least seen it referenced in “The Lion King” or “The Simpsons.” But I bet you haven’t had the chance to follow the characters through campus as they reenact the notorious tale of murder, betrayal and teenage (err … 30-year-old) rebellion. Get there early to be one of 50 to see the show on opening night (it will continue at the same time Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with 100 seats)!

Rhode Island Hunger and Homelessness Teach-In
6:30-7:30 p.m., MacMillan 117
Learn about the situation of the homeless in Rhode Island and how you can help. This discussion will include a representative from the social services agency and soup kitchen Amos House in South Providence, Rabbi Oser of Judy’s Kindness Kitchen and Professor of Sociology Gregory Elliot, along with the Community Health DUG and the sisters of Kappa Alpha Theta. [Read more →]