Professor Sarah Keller of the University of Washington will present “Using Basic Science to Understand 21^st Century Energy Options” on Tuesday, Oct. 23 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Carleton College in Olin Hall, room 149. Keller’s lecture will help to garner understanding of the different kinds of energy production available using topics from high school level physics and chemistry. This event is free and open to the public.

Dance away the autumn chill at  the 7th annual Northfield Harvest Stomp!, a community contra dance featuring music by Contratopia and led by caller Robin Nelson, on Friday, Oct. 19 from 7 to 10:30 p.m. at the Northfield Armory, located at 519 Division Street in downtown Northfield.

Thursday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. in the Carleton College Concert Hall, the public is invited to a not-to-be-missed Celebration of African Song. "Acoustic Africa: Afropean Woman" features Dobet Gnahoré, the Ivory Coast vocalist and dancer who has garnered a reputation as one of the most vibrant performers in world music. Dobet, who won the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music 2006 “Best Newcomer," made her North American debut in the fall of 2006 in Putumayo Presents: Acoustic Africa, alongside Habib Koite and Vusi Mahlasela. In 2010 Dobet Gnahoré won the Grammy for Best Urban/Alternative Performance for the song “Pearls” in collaboration with India.Arie.

Just in time for Election Day, Carleton College’s Humanities Center will present political advertising professional and “ad whiz” Bill Hillsman ‘75, along with Carleton political science professor Barbara Allen, as they discuss “2012 Election Ads: Do the Facts Really Matter?  Visuals, Sound, & the Factual Accuracy of Political Advertising” on Sunday, Oct. 21 from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in the Weitz Center for Creativity, room 236. Their timely and thought-provoking presentation will highlight the existence (and lack thereof!) of truthfulness, accuracy and transparency in political advertising. This event is free and open to the public.

Carleton College will celebrate the 200^th birthday of Charles Dickens with a special appearance by James Kincaid, the Aerol Arnold Professor of English at the University of Southern California, on Oct. 18 at 5 p.m. in the Boliou Hall Auditorium. Kincaid’s lecture, entitled “Great Expectations and Death,” will discuss the work of Charles Dickens as part of a series of events commemorating the bicentennial of the author’s birth.

In advance of Kincaid’s appearance, the College will host a marathon public reading of Dickens’ classic novel, “David Copperfield,” on the north balcony of the Sayles-Hill Great Space. Beginning at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 16 and continuing until 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 16, various Carleton faculty members, administrators (including President Steve Poskanzer), and students will take turns reading the novel aloud, chapter-by-chapter.

Gina Haney, co-director of the Future of Babylon Project of the World Monuments Fund, will speak abou the organization’s fight to restore one of the world’s great archaeological treasures—ancient Babylon—on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 5 p.m. in the Weitz Center for Creativity Cinema. Haney’s presentation, “Managing Landscapes: The Case of Babylon, Iraq,” looks at the challenge of historic preservation in a region torn apart by war. This event is free and open to the public.

The Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County Song and Dance Troupe, an award-winning music and dance group from the Chinese island of Hainan, will perform at Carleton College’s weekly convocation on Friday, Oct. 19. The group is dedicated to the traditional folk music of the Li and Miao (also known as Hmong outside China) ethnic groups, who live mostly in southern China and Southeast Asia. This special convocation will be held in the Carleton College Concert Hall from 10:50 a.m. to 11:50 a.m., and it is free and open to the public. Convocations are also streamed live and can be viewed online at http://apps.carleton.edu/events/convocations/.

Later than same evening, the Baoting Li and Miao Dance Troupe will perform again at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall. Both morning and evening performances are free and open to the public.

Carleton College and the Northfield community will come together to bring old blackboards to life in a colorful and creative event on Saturday, Oct. 20 from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Weitz Center for Creativity. The “Chalk Slam” includes live music and refreshments and is free and open to the public. Humble blackboards, an essential feature of classrooms past, will come alive as students, professors, mathematicians, Minnesota artists, and community organizations draw, doodle, and calculate—creating temporary compositions that honor decades of learning by blackboard at the site of the former Northfield Middle School.  

Noted and celebrated Indian documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan will host a discussion and screening of his groundbreaking film, “Jai Bhim Comrade: The atrocity of caste, a tradition of reason, a song that will be sung,” at the Carleton College Weitz Center for Creativity Cinema on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. This rare appearance is one of only two screenings of the film in Minnesota. Patwardhan’s films document injustice in an attempt to spark dialogue and social change; “Jai Bhim Comrade” provides a harrowing look at the persistent suffering of the “untouchable” caste in Indian society despite attempts to end discrimination. This event, which is free and open to the public, begins with a discussion and reception with Patwardhan at 6 p.m., followed by the screening of the film at 7 p.m.

Phil Plait, an astronomer and author/creator of the “Bad Astronomy” website and blog, will present Carleton College’s weekly convocation on Friday, Oct. 12. Titled “Death From the Skies!,” Plait’s presentation is based on his book of the same name, which explores various means of human extinction through astronomical disasters like asteroid impacts and supernovae. Convocation is held from 10:50-11:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel, and it is free and open to the public. This convocation won't be live streamed, nor will an on-demand video be made available. 

Carleton College is pleased to present multiple Grammy and Hoku Award-winning Hawaiian slack key guitarist George Kahumoku Jr. in concert on Friday, October 5 at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall. Labeled “Hawaii’s Renaissance Man” by Maui Time Weekly, Kahumoku is a songwriter, world-traveling performer, director of the Institute of Hawaiian Music, artist and sculptor, storyteller and writer, farmer and entrepreneur. In concert, he presents his traditional style of Hawaiian Slack Key guitar with vocals and stories of life and culture in Hawaii. This event is free and open to the public.

Kye Allums, who made history as the first openly transgender athlete to play on an NCAA Division I college basketball team, will present his story, entitled “A Transgender Athlete’s Story,” at Carleton College on Friday, Oct. 12. Sponsored by Carleton’s Gender and Sexuality Center as part of “National Coming Out Week,” this event takes place in the Great Hall beginning at 5:00 p.m., and it is free and open to the public.