Nassau notes

Artist Takaezu returns for talk

Toshiko Takaezu, renowned ceramist and creator of the bronze Remembrance Bell in Princeton’s Memorial Garden near Chancellor Green, will speak about her work at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26, in Room 207 of 185 Nassau St.

Takaezu’s work figures in the collections of more than 20 museums, including the Metropolitan and American Crafts Museums in New York, the Smithsonian Institution and the art museums of Boston, Baltimore, Newark, Cleveland, Detroit, Honolulu and Bangkok. The Philadelphia Museum recently honored her with a lifetime achievement award while presenting a retrospective of her work, titled “The Poetry of Clay.”

Takaezu taught at Princeton from 1967 to 1992 and returned in 2004 as a Belknap Visitor in the Humanities. She has been honored by the University with a Behrman Award for distinguished achievement in the humanities in 1992 and an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 1996. Three of Takaezu’s pots, in her inimitable blue glaze, are permanently exhibited in the main corridor of 185 Nassau St.

Takaezu’s talk coincides with the publication of “Toshiko Takaezu: The Earth in Bloom,” a 150-page photography book by J. Stanley Yake. The talk, which is sponsored by the Program in Visual Arts and the Council of the Humanities, will be followed by a reception with Takaezu and Yake.

Guitarist Aurelio Martínez will perform

Singer, composer and guitarist Aurelio Martínez will perform in concert at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29, in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall. Martínez, who grew up in Honduras, will present an evening of African-Amerindian music from Central America.

The concert is presented by the Program in Latin American Studies in conjunction with the Princeton University Concerts "Music of the World" series. Tickets are available through University Ticketing at www.princeton.edu/ utickets or 258-9220. (photo by Katia Paradis)

Volcker, Meyer to discuss ‘oil-for-food‘

Princeton alumnus Paul Volcker and Jeffrey Meyer, both former members of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Independent Inquiry Committee, will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.

Their lecture, titled “Reform at the United Nations? Lessons From the Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq,” is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Volcker, a member of the class of 1949 and former chair of the Federal Reserve, chaired the U.N. committee, which was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2004 to investigate possible corruption in the Iraqi Oil-for-Food Program. Meyer, an associate professor of law at Quinnipiac University, is former senior counsel to the committee.

After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the U.N. Security Council put in place a set of sanctions to isolate the regime in Baghdad. To mitigate the negative consequences on the civilian population, the council set up the Oil-for-Food Program, which allowed Iraq to sell its oil and use the major portion of the revenues to purchase food and other humanitarian relief supplies.

In a report issued last October, Volcker’s committee said that more than 2,000 companies that did business with the U.N. program were involved in bribes and kickbacks that allowed Saddam Hussein’s regime to divert nearly $2 billion.

Journalist offers view of life in Iraq

Washington Post journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran will present a talk on “The Emerald City: A Discussion of Life Inside America’s Occupation Headquarters in Iraq” at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, in 16 Robertson Hall.

Chandrasekaran, assistant managing editor of the Post and its former bureau chief in Iraq, is the author of a new book, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone.” The book explores Baghdad’s Green Zone, a walled-off “little America” of towering plants, villas, stocked bars, a mall and swimming pools that housed U.S. officials responsible for engineering Iraq’s postwar reconstruction. Chandrasekaran gives a firsthand account of the American occupation in Iraq and how officials “routinely ignored the reality of local conditions until, as one ex-staffer puts it, ‘everything blew up in our faces.’”

Before being named the Post’s assistant managing editor, Chandrasekaran served as bureau chief in Baghdad, Cairo and Southeast Asia and as a correspondent covering the war in Afghanistan. Chandrasekaran became the newspaper’s Middle East correspondent in 2002 and moved to Baghdad on the eve of the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

His lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Australian poet Kinsella to read from work

Australian poet John Kinsella will read from his work at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, in the Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau St.

Kinsella is the author of more than 30 books of poetry, including “The New Arcadia,” “Doppler Effect” and “Peripheral Light.” His work has been translated into several languages and has earned many honors, including the Grace Leven Poetry Prize and the John Bray Award for Poetry.

Kinsella’s poems, essays and reviews have been published in journals and newspapers around the world. He also has published autobiographical and fictional works, verse plays and a textual adaptation of the Wagner opera “Götterdämmerung.”

Kinsella is the founding editor of the international literary journal Salt and international editor of The Kenyon Review. He has taught at Kenyon College and Cambridge University.

The event is part of the Althea Ward Clark Reading Series sponsored by the Program in Creative Writing.

MoMA presents Friedrich retrospective

The films of Su Friedrich, professor of visual arts, will be the focus of a midcareer retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City Sept. 27-30.

Nine films that deal with feminism, gender and sexuality will be shown, including Friedrich’s latest film, “Seeing Red,” which was produced in 2005. It will be the East Coast premiere of “Seeing Red,” which explores the notion that a color, melody or a person has multiple characteristics that cannot be understood within a simple framework.

The retrospective, called “The Personal Films of Su Friedrich,” coincides with the DVD release of a five-volume, 13-title Friedrich film collection.

A member of the avant-garde film community, Friedrich is known for producing groundbreaking films that mix experimental, narrative and documentary forms to explore lesbian adolescence, gender politics, women’s health and family relationships. She came to Princeton in 1998 and is the first tenured filmmaker on the faculty.

On opening night Friedrich will present five of her films, including “The Ties That Bind” and “Sink or Swim.”

The events are open to the public. For more information, call (212) 708-9400 or visit www.moma.org/exhibitions/film_media/2006/Su_Friedrich.html.

‘AWOL’ authors discuss book on military service

The authors of “AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes From Military Service — and How It Hurts Our Country” will discuss their book at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 25, in 16 Robertson Hall.

In the book, Kathryn Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer examine the growing disconnect between the cultural elite and the military rank-and-file, which the authors assert has created a dangerous lack of understanding between those in power and those who serve in the military.

Roth-Douquet, an attorney and political activist who writes on issues of the military in society, served in the Defense Department during the Clinton administration. She earned a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton in 1991.

Schaeffer, a writer and filmmaker, has made numerous documentaries, including a series on medical ethics with former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.

The lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Program in Visual Arts exhibition

This untitled photograph by senior Eleanor Oakes is among the pieces on view at an exhibition of work by students in the Program in Visual Arts Sept. 26-Oct. 13 in the galleries at 185 Nassau St.

An opening on Tuesday, Sept. 26, will include video screenings from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Stewart Film Theater and a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26, in the Lucas Gallery. Hours for the exhibition are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

‘Freakonomics‘ co-author to speak

Steven Levitt, co-author (with Stephen Dubner) of the best-selling book “Freakonomics,” will discuss his latest research at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, in McCosh 50.

His address is titled “Beyond Freakonomics: New Musings on the Economics of Everyday Life.”

Levitt is a professor in economics and the director of the Initiative on Chicago Price Theory at the University of Chicago. In 2003 he won the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded biannually by the American Economics Association to the most promising U.S. economist under the age of 40.

In the 2005 book, subtitled “A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything,” Levitt uses the tools of economics to explain everyday phenomena, from crime rates to social inequality to the effects of good and bad parenting.

The Stafford Little Lecture is part of the University Public Lecture Series.