As the new school year gets underway in the College of Arts and Sciences, there’s plenty of drama, music and political discourse to inform and entertain you during September. Scroll through highlights and links below, and please don’t forget to mark your calendars.
Sept. 5-9: PlayMakers Repertory Company presents An Iliad, bringing a modern sensibility to Homer’s epic tale, with Ray Dooley playing a variety of characters. Center for Dramatic Art. Tickets and schedule: 919.962-7529, http://www.playmakersrep.org
Sept. 5: Yan Song, director of UNC’s Program on Chinese Cities, will discuss Urbanization in China: Critical Issues in an Era of Rapid Growth, and artist Barbara Tyroler will talk about Beijing Impressions: Portraits of a Shifting Landscape, currently on display at the FedEx Global Education Center. Art viewing and reception to follow. 6 pm, FedEx GEC http://www.global.unc.edu/
Sept. 6: Music on the Porch: performances by Sally Spring, Joe Newberry and M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger. Moderated by Freddy Jenkins of WUNC’s Back Porch Music. 5:30 pm, Love House and Hutchins Forum, 410 E. Franklin Street. Sponsored by Center for the Study of the American South. http://www.uncsouth.org
Sept. 6: Music faculty jazz trio with pianist Stephen Anderson, bassist Jason Foureman and drummer Dan Davis performing American Songbook II. 9:30 pm, Kenan Music Building Rehearsal Hall. http://music.unc.edu/
Sept. 6: Screening and discussion of the film Elza with director Mariette Monpierre, UNC Women’s and Gender Studies Professor Tanya Shields and NCSU Professor Sheila Smith McKoy.
With Caribbean-themed refreshments. Part of the Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film. 7 pm, Sonja Haynes Stone Center. RSVP to stonecenter@unc.edu
Sept. 6: Eric Muller, director of the Center for Faculty Excellence, will discuss his new book Colors of Confinement. 4 pm, Hyde Hall University Room. http://iah.unc.edu
Sept. 7: Mareike Kleine, London School of Economics, will discuss EU Governance in Times of Crisis: The Role of Informality. 12 noon, FedEx Global Education Center, 4th floor seminar room. http://www.unc.edu/depts/europe/
Sept. 7: Irish Ambassador Michael Collins will discuss Ireland and the Euro Crisis, 3: 30 pm, FedEx Global Education Center, Mandela Auditorium. http://www.global.unc.edu
Sept. 7 (through the fall semester): Art@theCenter. Center for the Study of the American South presents In This Timeless Time: Living and Dying on Death Row in America, documentary photography by Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian. Love House and Hutchins Forum, 410 E. Franklin Street. http://www.uncsouth.org
Sept. 11: Temple University Professor Richard Immerman will discuss Covert Operations: Intelligence Analysis and the Making of the CIA: A Dynamic for Failure, part of US in World Affairs lecture series. 4 pm, 569 Hamilton Hall. larres@unc.edu
Sept. 12: Stuart Rockoff of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life will discuss Southern Jews in the Crucible of Civil Rights. 7:30 pm, Friday Center. http://www.unc.edu/ccjs/events.html
Sept. 13: Charleston Lecture: The South and the 2012 Presidential Election, by Earl Black, professor emeritus of political science, Rice University. Introduced by Harry Watson, Atlanta Alumni Distinguished Professor of History at UNC. 5 pm, Hyde Hall. http://www.uncsouth.org
Sept. 13: Creative Writing Professor Bland Simpson discusses his new book, Two Captains from Carolina, about a former slave and abolitionist and a Confederate blockade runner, whose parallel lives reflect the realities of race and maritime culture in the Civil War-era South. 5:30 pm, Wilson Library, Pleasants Family Assembly room. 919-962-4207. Liza_terll@unc.edu
Sept. 14: UNC political scientist Gary Marks will discuss Why Is Governance Multilevel, 12 noon, FedEx Global Education Center, 4th floor seminar room. http://www.unc.edu/depts/europe/
Sept. 15-16: Nina Simone – What More Can I Say? A One-Act, One-Woman Play, directed by Kathryn Williams, UNC Dramatic Art. 7 pm Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, Sonja Haynes Stone Center. stonecenter@unc.edu
Sept. 15: THATCamp, where humanists and technologists of all skill levels learn and build together in spontaneous sessions. 9 am to 5 pm, Hyde Hall. http://iah.unc.edu
Sept. 16: Music faculty recital, works of Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff, with soprano Andrea Edith Moore, pianist Keiko Sekino, violinist Hye-Jin Kim and cellist Emmanuel Gruber. 3 pm, Hill Hall Auditorium. $10-$15, 919-962-1039. http://music.unc.edu/
Sept. 18: Blues and R&B superstar Bobby Rush in concert. 11 am, Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library. http://www.uncsouth.org
Sept. 18: Hanes Visiting Artist Lecture Series: Ruben Ochoa looks closely at the nature of dislocation and displacement within an urban environment. 6 pm, Hanes Art Center. http://art.unc.edu
Sept. 18: Carolina Wind Quartet, works of Gounod, Tansman and Foerster, with Brooks deWetter-Smith, Michael Schultz, Donald Oehler, Andrew McAfee and John Pederson. 7:30 pm, Hill Hall Auditorium. http://music.unc.edu/
Sept. 20: Rufus Edmisten, former Deputy Chief Counsel to the Watergate Committee who served the subpoena to President Nixon, discusses his Watergate Papers with Chancellor Holden Thorp. Papers on view at 5 pm, talk at 5:30 pm, Wilson Library. 919-962-4207. Liza_terll@unc.edu
Sept. 20: Third Annual Carolina Piedmont Blues Benefit, featuring live performances by John Dee Holeman and Lightnin’ Wells. 5 to 7 pm, Love House and Hutchins Forum, 410 E. Franklin St. http://www.sootsblues.org
Sept. 21: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor historian Geoff Eley will discuss The Past under Erasure? History, Memory and the Contemporary. 4 pm, Wilson Library, Pleasants Family Reading Room. http://www.unc.edu/ncgs
Sept. 19-Oct. 7: PlayMakers Repertory Company presents Red, about abstract artist Mark Rothko. $15-$50. Opening night includes a complimentary gala party afterward. Center for Dramatic Art. Tickets and schedule: 919.962-7529, http://www.playmakersrep.org
Sept. 27: Alice Rivlin, founding director of the Congressional Budget Office, former director of the US Office of Management and Budget and vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board, will discuss Health Care Reform: Will We Ever Get It Right, for the Thomas Willis Lambeth Lecture. 5:30 pm, Gerrard Hall. http://publicpolicy.unc.edu
Sept. 27: Hutchins Lecture: Law and Politics on the Edge: North Carolina’s Latest Chapter in Redistricting. Kareem U. Crayton, associate professor, UNC School of Law. Introduced by Daniel Gitterman, UNC associate professor of public policy. 4:30 pm, 039 Graham Memorial. http://www.uncsouth.org
Sept. 28: NC Jazz Repertory Orchestra: Twentieth Anniversary Showcase Concert. 8 pm, Hill Hall Auditorium.$10-$15, (919) 843-3333. http://music.unc.edu/
Sept. 29: Boaz Gaon, professor at the Minshar Arts School in Tel Aviv, presents an Israeli adaptation of Ibsen’s play An Enemy of the People. 7:30 pm, Friday Center. http://www.unc.edu/ccjs/events.html
UNC calendar, for more events