Nassau notes

Princeton students, faculty, staff and their families are invited to the Frist Campus Center to celebrate spring and the conclusion of the academic year at the annual Fristfest Weekend, set for Thursday through Saturday, April 30-May 2.

Fristfest Weekend kicks off at 4 p.m. Thursday with a beach-themed picnic and carnival on Frist’s south lawn featuring live entertainment, games and giveaways. Additional activities will include coed volleyball and “speed stacking” competitions coordinated by the Office of Campus Recreation.

This year’s live entertainment lineup features two New Jersey bands: Stuck in a Decade (’80s rock) and Status Green (rock and pop). University acts will include Funkmaster General (R&B and soul); the Plagiarists (rock and alternative); and the 2008 “Princetonian Idol” winner, junior Shenita Baltimore, plus four runners-up — sophomore Kadeem Gill and seniors Joy Hanson, Marcus Perkins and Andy Chen.

The picnic dinner will include salads, grilled burgers, hot dogs, Brooklyn-style pizza, sausage with peppers, fish tacos and malt vinegar fries. Vegan burgers and tacos also will be available. Students with an active meal plan contract can swipe their TigerCard ID to receive tickets for the picnic dinner. Non-meal plan holders may use cash or Paw Points to purchase $2 tickets at the Frist Food Gallery on Thursday. Free desserts will include assorted ice cream novelties, cookies, fudge brownies, caramel corn and whole fruit served in the Food Gallery. Free beverages will be available throughout the afternoon.

The celebration continues Friday with the Tastes and Sounds of Prince-ton, a showcase of cuisines from Princeton-area restaurants and music, at 8 p.m. on the south lawn.

Fristfest Weekend concludes Saturday with the University Wind Ensemble’s “Concert Under the Stars” on 1879 Green and a moonlight movie presentation of “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” on the south lawn, both starting at 9 p.m. Free popcorn, ice cream and churros will be offered during the movie.

For further information — including a complete schedule, menu and weather-related updates — visit www.princeton.edu/frist.

Senior Thesis video projects screened

(courtesy of Glenn Brown and Rudy Lee)

Screenings of two senior thesis video projects — “People Are Dying in Africa” by Glenn Brown (right, above) and “Chloe on the Verge” by Rudy Lee — will be presented at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 28, and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 2, in the Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau St. The screenings are sponsored by the Program in Visual Arts in the Lewis Center for the Arts.

China’s U.S. ambassador to speak

China’s ambassador to the United States, Zhou Wenzhong, will speak on “China-U.S. Relations in the New Era” at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 29, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.

Zhou was appointed U.S. ambassador in 2005. He previously held diplomatic positions in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles and also served as China’s ambassador to Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and Australia, among many foreign affairs positions he has held since 1975.

The lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program.

Hehir talk focuses on Catholic charity

The Rev. Bryan Hehir, a Harvard University scholar and former head of Catholic Charities USA, will speak on “Catholic Conceptions of Charity, Justice and Philanthropy” at 4:30 p.m. Friday, May 1, in 120 Lewis Library.

Hehir is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, specializing in Catholic social teaching and international relations. He also serves as secretary for health and social services in the Archdiocese of Boston. In that role, faced with a state mandate to allow adoptions by same-sex couples, he was part of the controversial decision in 2006 to end Catholic Charities of Boston’s adoption work.

Hehir served as president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA from 2001 to 2004 and as dean of the Harvard Divinity School from 1998 to 2001.

The talk is the Doll Lecture on Religion and Money sponsored by the Center for the Study of Religion.

Senior Thesis Sculpture and Photography exhibited

(photos: Elizabeth Lemoine)

Seniors Elizabeth Lemoine and Anna Miller (below) will exhibit their senior thesis work Wednesday through Friday, April 29-May 1, in the Lucas Gallery, 185 Nassau St. Miller will present “Out of the Box,” an exhibition of sculpture and performance, alongside “Portraits,” a display of Lemoine’s photography. The exhibition is hosted by the Program in Visual Arts in the Lewis Center for the Arts.

Conference examines newspaper crisis

Journalists and scholars will examine “The Newspaper Crisis” in a conference scheduled for 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, May 1, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.

The conference will address the closures, layoffs and decreased circulation afflicting the newspaper industry and will explore what they mean to the public and how they affect the democratic process. Participants also will discuss how alternative models of journalism are structured and funded.

The event will feature two panels. The first will discuss the decline of the local newspaper industry, particularly the decreased coverage of the New Jersey Statehouse. The second panel will discuss emerging online news services, alternative funding for newspapers through nonprofits or philanthropy, and the increased use of the Internet as a source of information.

Paul Starr, Princeton’s Stuart Professor of Communications and Public Affairs and professor of sociology and public affairs, will deliver the opening address. Panelists will include Charles Layton, senior writer for the American Journalism Review and a former editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer; Jim Willse, editor of The (Newark) Star-Ledger; and Stephen Engelberg, managing editor of ProPublica, an online investigative journalism organization.

The conference is sponsored by the Policy Research Institute for the Region of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

The event is open to the public, but registration is required. To register, visit www.princeton.edu/prior/events/conferences/the-newspaper-crisis/index.xml. For more information, contact Georgette Harrison gharriso@princeton.edu.

Music history is subject of lecture

Alex Ross, music critic of The New Yorker and author of a critically acclaimed history of 20th-century music, will deliver a lecture titled “Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues: Bass Lines of Music History” at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 28, in McCosh 10.

Ross’ lecture will explore recurring musical patterns across centuries to test the proposition that music is a universal language. Examples will range from 16th-century music to Bob Dylan songs.

Ross has been the music critic of The New Yorker since 1996. His first book, “The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century” (2007), won a National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2008, he received a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and served as a visiting professor of journalism at Princeton.

The talk is the J. Edward Farnum Lecture sponsored by the University Public Lecture Series.

University Art Museum photo collection exhibition

(courtesy of Princeton University Art Museum)

Two dozen photographs from the Princeton University Art Museum’s permanent collection are featured in an exhibition titled “What Is a Thing?” that runs through June 28.

The exhibition includes works such as “Broken Office Chair” (1954) by American photographer Donald Ross in its exploration of the countless ways that photographers of the past 170 years have broken down and reconstituted reality.

Princeton Prize winners to discuss race relations work

Winners of the Princeton Prize in Race Relations from across the country will discuss their efforts to improve race relations from 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 2, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.

The Princeton Prize program honors high school students who do outstanding work to advance the cause of race relations. Created by alumni volunteers and sponsored by the Alumni Association, the program was launched in 2003 in two cities and has expanded to offer prizes in 23 regions this year.

The student presentations are open to the public. They are part of the second annual Princeton Prize on Race Relations Symposium. On Friday, May 1, prize winners will convene with students from nearby high schools to share ideas on making their communities more racially tolerant. They also will meet with Melissa Harris-Lacewell, associate professor of politics and African American studies, and President Tilghman.

The symposium is sponsored by members of the Princeton class of 1966, the Office of the Alumni Association and the Fields Center.