Lafayette has been selected to offer a Tournees Festival for the second consecutive year. Funded through a grant from the French Cultural Services (FACE), the festival is part of an initiative to help bring contemporary French cinema to college and university campuses across the US. This year's selection of films includes an array of genres from documentaries to dramas, co-productions that represent the Francophone world, as well as films by directors ranging from unique new voices to established figures.

A short discussion will follow each screening. For the full list of dates and places, go to: http://sites.lafayette.edu/tourneesfilmfest/2009-schedule/

An exhibition marking the 150th anniversary, on November 24, of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species," is comprised of three related sections. In "A Habit of Deciding Influence" are 18 photographs of Darwin’s pigeon specimens at the Natural History of London/Tring. Darwin took up the study of domesticated pigeons in 1855 and his observations of artificial selection in pigeon breeding was invaluable to his understanding of the way species change in natural environments. 2)"Coop" is a mixed-media installation based on Darwin’s five-sided pigeon coop. 3)"Frameworks of Absence: The Extinct Birds of John James Audubon” includes 10 altered prints from “Birds of America.”

Used and New CD's & DVD's

A third way to think about aid
Jacqueline Novogratz

"[...] we have people that say the aid system is so broken we need to throw it out. And on the other we have people who say the problem is that we need more aid. And what I want to talk about is something that compliments both systems."

Vietnam War veteran Mike Boehm will discus of a series of current peace and reconciliation projects in Vietnam that he has been closely involved with.
A veteran who served in Cu Chi, Vietnam, working in Operations from 1968 to 1969, Boehm first returned to Vietnam in 1992 to help build a medical clinic. While there, he began to come to terms with his own experiences there and to understand the tremendous capacity of people-to-people projects for building peace and reconciliation between our two societies. Boehm's work in Vietnam has included providing loans to almost 3,000 women in 16 different villages including My Lai, building on the Grameen Bank model of micro credit.

The artwork in this exhibition represents collaboration between students and faculty in the art and computer science departments through the Emergent Patterns project, exploring the complex patterns and processes that can emerge in visual structures. They worked with software programs to produce different forms of recurring, natural patterns. These organic structures and patterns were then combined in layers of transparent surfaces. The multiple-layered works allow the viewer to see the evolutionary track back through the surface to the less complex visual systems from which the final image emerges.

Headed by Ed Kerns, Eugene H. Clapp II Professor of Art, and Chun Wai Liew, associate professor, head of computer science. Student participants included Rhodes Baker '10, computer science; Imogen Cain '12, art; Long Ho '10, mathematics and computer science; Khine Lin '11, pursing a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering and an A.B. in mathematics; and Scott Lyttle '10, art.

Baba Brinkman's rap workshop with W.O.R.D.S.

The Washington, D.C., Chapter of the Lafayette Alumni Association cordially invites you to attend its annual dinner featuring Robert J. Massa, Ed.D., Vice President for Communications at Lafayette. Join us for cocktails and a three-course meal on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009.

6:30 p.m. Cocktail reception
7:30 p.m. Dinner

The City Tavern Club
3206 M Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20007
(202) 337-8770

Cost: $45 (Class of 2003 and older)
$40 (Classes of 2004-2009)

Reservations are due to the Office of Alumni Affairs by Tuesday, Nov. 3 and may be submitted by clicking below.

Questions? Conctact the Office of Alumni Affairs, alumni@lafayette.edu, (610) 330-5040 or 1-800-LAFAYETTE (outside of PA).

Baba Brinkman is a Canadian actor and rap artist. The Rap Guide to Evolution explores the history and current understanding of Darwin's theory, combining hilarious remixes of popular rap songs with clever lyrical storytelling that covers Natural Selection, Sexual Selection, Evolutionary Psychology, and much more. Dr. Mark Pallen, author of The Rough Guide to Evolution has vetted the entire script for scientific and historical accuracy, making it a powerful teaching tool as well as a laugh-out-loud comedy experience.

"Gigante," the first feature length film from writer-director Adrian Biniez, is the story of Jara, a security guard who falls in love as he supervises staff through the closed-circuit cameras at a supermarket. First voyeur, then guardian angel, he protects and pursues the cleaning woman who has unknowingly captured his heart.

The film runs approximately 84 minutes in Spanish with English subtitles, public and is unrated.

Put aside all your locked-in-memory associations of Julie Andrews and her fellow icons from the classic film, The Sound of Music. Choreographer Doug Elkins and his all-star assemblage of downtown New York dancers take a loving and fiendishly clever new look at the great Rodgers and Hammerstein musical in the award-winning Fr�ulein Maria. Elkins adds to the fun of the evening by overlaying signature “moves” from the dance palettes of George Balanchine, Jos� Limon, Paul Taylor, and Martha Graham.

Fr�ulein Maria affirms the power of dance to bring fresh delight and fun to worlds at once familiar and unexamined. The dizzying antics of gleeful dancers bring new life to the familiar songs.

Called “a jewel of choreographic invention and comic subtlety” and “ceaselessly brilliant and often hilarious” by The New York Times, this is dance guaranteed to bring a smile to your heart.