Awareness: The School of Public Health's annual public service announcement contest lets filmmakers showcase their work while raising public awareness on topics such as pollution, clean water, nutrition, infectious disease, and access to health care.

National Public Health Week Film Festival
Mayo Auditorium
April 6–11

Behavior: : Darwin believed that his theory of evolution would stand or fall on its ability to account for the behavior of all species. His challenge was to account for human social behavior, which involves elaborate cooperation among large numbers.

Peter Richerson: "Darwinian Evolutionary Ethics: Between Patriotism and Sympathy"
Tate Lab
February 20, 3:30 p.m. PAST EVENT

Chthonic: Louise Glück's poetry regularly calls upon chthonic (underworld) Greek deities such as Persephone and Hades, demonstrating the enduring power of myth.

Reading and Talk by Poet Louise Glück
Coffman Union
March 4, 7:30 p.m. PAST EVENT

Disegno: Architect Frank Gehry's use of drawing has been likened to Leonardo and Durer's disegno—a practice that induces creative thought by letting the hand trace the mind’s hidden intentions.

Lecture by Architect Edwin Chan, Gehry Partners
March 23, 6 p.m.
Rapson Hall

Executive: Since World War II, the United States has faced more than one constitutional crisis over the authority of the executive branch. Most recently, the Bush administration’s handling of "enemy combatants" precipitated intense disputes.

Great Conversations: "America's Constitutional Crisis"
Ted Mann Concert Hall
March 10, 7:30 p.m. PAST EVENT

Futhark: The Runic alphabet is known as futhark, a name composed from the alphabet's first six letters—f, u, th, a, r, and k. This is analogous to the Greek alphabet's first two letters being alpha (a) and beta (b).

Anatoly Liberman: "One More Hopeless Attempt to Explain the Origin of the Runic Alphabet"
Nolte Center
March 24, 4 p.m.

Gaga: Ohad Naharin, Batsheva Dance Company's artistic director, trains his dancers in gaga, his own rigorous physical method designed to free the body while making it flexible, strong, and self-aware.

Batsheva Dance Company: Shalosh (Three)
Northrop Auditorium
February 18, 7:30 p.m. PAST EVENT

Hope: Choreographer José Limón created Missa Brevis after he and his dance company toured Poland in 1958 and found, throughout its war-ravaged cities, people with the hope and willingness to rebuild.

Limón Dance Company and U of M Dance Students: Missa Brevis
Northrop Auditorium
March 19, 7:30 p.m.

Iron: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, current president of Liberia, has earned her nickname "Iron Lady." Over a political career spanning almost 30 years, she twice was jailed for speaking out against military regimes and twice went into exile.

Distinguished Carlson Lecture: Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Northrop Auditorium
April 10, 2 p.m.

Journey: In Cuban-born playwright Nilo Cruz's Night Train to Bolina, two young children, Mateo and Clara, take a journey of imagination from an unidentified rural village in the midst of guerilla war to a fantasy city where lost kites go.

Night Train to Bolina
Rarig Center
February 27–March 7 PAST EVENT

Kimono: The kimono (ki wearing + mono thing), the national costume of Japan, is a traditional long, wide-sleeved robe worn with a broad sash and often elaborately decorated.

Expressions of Stability and Change: Ethnic Dress and Folk Costumes
Goldstein Museum of Design, McNeal Hall
February 7–June 14

LEED: The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System provides standards for sustainable construction. Standards proposed by LEED are publicly reviewed by its more than 10,000 member organizations.

The Green House: New Designs in Sustainable Architecture and Design
Rapson Hall
Through March 8 PAST EVENT

Mythopoetic: Founding member of the mythopoetic men’s movement Robert Bly changed the way Americans write and read poetry.

Conference: "Robert Bly in this World"
Andersen Library
April 16–19

Nares: The sweet smells of nature tickle our nares—the openings of our nose—and have the ability to tempt, bewitch, and even repel us. National expert Avery Gilbert will give a presentation that helps makes sense of scents.

The Attraction and Seduction of Scent
Bell Museum
April 18, 7 p.m.

One: Nadine Strossen served for 18 years as president of the American Civil Liberties Union. In Strossen's eyes, if the government has the ability "to threaten one right for one person," it can use that power to diminish the rights of others.

Nadine Strossen: "Current Challenges to Civil Liberties"
Mondale Hall
April 14, 12:15 p.m.

Power: Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Tony Kushner examines the rise to power of two political parties in two different eras through the lens of two women living in Berlin. He also reveals the power of individuals to change their worlds.

A Bright Room Called Day
Rarig Center
April 17–25

Quirky: Spark is the annual showcase of new-media music and art. Here’s a snapshot of the quirkiness to be found: Spark founder Doug Geers uses the popular Wii as a musical instrument in his Princeton Laptop Orchestra.

Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts
Various locations
February 17–22 PAST EVENT

RiverIsland: Poetry is no longer strictly the domain of brooding artists scribbling in cafes; it has now been stamped by the digital era. One of award-winning poet John Cayley's works is the piece "riverIsland."

Electronic Poetry
Nolte Center
March 5, 4 p.m. PAST EVENT

Stereotype: Among the many functions of art is the ability to shatter stereotypes. In this exhibition, the life stories of 10 Vietnamese artists help to dispel myths about Asian and Asian-American women.

Changing Identity: Recent Works by Women Artists from Vietnam
Weisman Art Museum
Through May 24

Troubadour: Troubadours were composers and performers of lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Modern troubadours include spoken word and hip-hop artists, who will be the featured guests at this special show at the Weisman.

Equilibrium Spoken Word and Hip-Hop Showcase
Weisman Art Museum
April 10, 8 p.m.

Unspeakable: The unspeakable act of a foster mother killing her daughter’s baby is the backdrop for this unrelentingly realistic opera by Czech composer Leoš Janáček

Leoš Janáček's Jenufa
Ted Mann Concert Hall
April 23–26

Vision: Kurt Elling is a preeminent jazz vocalist, but his vision extends beyond jazz and integrates music with poetry, acting, directing, and producing. His Dedicated to You takes a new look at John Coltrane's collaboration with Johnny Hartman.

Kurt Elling Sings: Coltrane/Hartman
Ted Mann Concert Hall
February 20, 8 p.m. PAST EVENT

Wearable: : Feast your eyes on the catwalk as a dozen budding designers from the U's Clothing Design Program display their creations. The collections include all things wearable, from work clothing and sustainable fabrics to avant-garde designs and theater costumes.

EXPOSED: 41st Annual Clothing Design Senior Fashion Show
Rapson Hall
February 21, 5:30 and 8 p.m. PAST EVENT

Xenophobia: Father Patrick Desbois's grandfather was a POW during World War II who witnessed the massacre of Jews by the Nazis. Desbois has since discovered many mass graves in Ukraine that testify to the xenophobia and genocidal acts of the Holocaust.

Lecture: "The Holocaust by Bullets"
Nolte Center
February 26, 12 p.m. PAST EVENT

Yevgeniy: Boris Eifman's new ballet tells the tale of a jaded aristocrat who comes to regret his spurning of a lovelorn girl. The story is based on the Aleksandr Pushkin novel Eugene (Yevgeniy) Onegin.

Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg:Eugene Onegin
Northrop Auditorium
April 24-25

Zygote: The evolution of life on Earth is captured in this acclaimed exhibit by Frans Lanting, which is making its North American premier. Lanting’s photos capture our planet's organisms from A to zygote.

Internationally Acclaimed Life: A Journey through Time
Bell Museum
February 14–April 12