Classic Cinema

Cornell Cinema's Monday Night Classic Cinema series will show the best in classic Hollywood and foreign films, all in high-quality new or restored 35 mm film prints, giving younger generations the opportunity to experience them on the big screen. Included: New prints of Jean Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast" (1946), Roman Polanski's "Knife in the Water" (1962), Francois Truffaut's "Shoot the Piano Player" (1960) and Sergei Parajanov's "Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors" (1964); and new restorations of Alain Resnais' "Last Year at Marienbad" (1961) and Max Ophuls' "Lola Montes" (1955). Attending a screening in the series enters you in a raffle for "Essential Art House: Volume One," a boxed set of six classic films. Raffle tickets are also available for $2 each, three for $5. The drawing takes place Monday, March 9, before "Shoot the Piano Player."

Academic freedom

A Conference on Academic Freedom Feb. 6-7 at the Africana Center brings together speakers to discuss such faculty issues as academic labor outsourcing, the future of academic work, labor conditions at research universities compared with those at community colleges, and the role of academic unions. Free and open to the public. Information: Rebecca Snyder, rms299@cornell.edu, 255-4444.

Composed

Doctor of musical arts candidate and composer Sean Shepherd, a student of Roberto Sierra and Steven Stucky, gives his D.M.A. recital Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall. Shepherd's "Aperture in Shift" for piano trio will be played by Benjamin Sung, violin; Heidi Hoffman, cello; and Xak Bjerken, piano. His three preludes for solo piano will be performed by Jihye Chang, and Shepherd will conduct his "Lumens" for sextet.

Legendary fiddler

The Cornell Folk Song Society presents Vermont fiddler John Specker on Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. in 165 McGraw Hall. Specker's mastery of traditional Appalachian music has profoundly influenced the next generation of fiddlers. Since the early '90s, Specker has been a mainstay at the Grassroots and Champlain Valley festivals, where he is legendary for his darkly intense style. Information: cornellfolksong.org or 351-4763.

Black imagery

Margo Natalie Crawford discusses her book "Dilution Anxiety and the Black Phallus," Feb. 10 at 4:30 p.m. in the Africana Studies and Research Center Multi-Purpose Room. The book is a study of images of the black body in American modernism, the black arts movement and the post-black arts movement. Crawford is an associate professor of African-American literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Free and open to the public. A reception and book signing follow.

Ithaca premiere

Alan Bennett's Tony and Olivier award-winning play "The History Boys" runs at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts Feb. 11-21. It's the story of eight English history students prepping to take scholarship exams for Oxford or Cambridge. Evening performances at 7:30 p.m.; 2 p.m. matinees, Feb. 15 and 21. Post-show discussion Feb. 19. Tickets: 607-254-ARTS.

Winter warmth

Richard Kiely, Ph.D. '02, speaks Feb. 11 at noon in Sage Chapel as part of the "Soup and Hope" weekly winter series. Soup and bread will be served (bring a bowl), and members of the Cornell community will share stories of hope. Kiely directs the Teaching Assistant Program in the Center for Teaching Excellence and is the faculty fellow at Cornell's Public Service Center. At Tompkins Cortland Community College, he co-founded a global service-learning health program in Nicaragua. Information: http://curw.cornell.edu.

Literary Luncheon

Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon will read from her poetry at the next Literary Luncheon, Feb. 18 at 11:30 a.m. at the home of President David Skorton and wife Professor Robin Davisson. The luncheon is free and open to the first 25 people to e-mail special-events@cornell.edu. Van Clief-Stefanon teaches English and creative writing at Cornell. She is the author of two collections of poetry: "Black Swan" (University of Pittsburgh Press), which won the 2001 Cave Canem Poetry Prize; and "Open Interval," to be published this spring. The recent chapbook "Poems in Conversation and a Conversation" was written in collaboration with Elizabeth Alexander, President Barack Obama's inaugural poet.