Luci Tapahonso, award-winning internationally acclaimed Navajo poet and author, will deliver the Native American History Month convocation on Friday, November 6 at 10:50 a.m. at Carleton College. Tapahonso’s writing is translated from her Navajo tribe’s native tongue, Diné bizaad, and includes original songs and chants designed for performance. This unique construction lends itself to strongly rhythmic and lyrical poetry. Her presentation, titled “A Radiant Curve: Stories and Poems,” will highlight the aspects of her Navajo upbringing and culture that continue to shape her as a woman and poet. This event is free and open to the public. *Note: Due to the roofing repair work taking place on the Skinner Memorial Chapel, Tapahonso's appearance will be held in the Carleton College Concert Hall.

Author, poet and Carleton professor emeritus Keith Harrison will read from his collection HERE AND NOW: Songs and Poems of the Earth on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. in the College’s Gould Library Athenaeum. Billed as a celebration of rural life and people, both in Minnesota and in the region of southeast Australia where Harrison spends half his year, Harrison will be joined by Jackson Bryce, Marjorie Crabb Garbisch Professor of Classical Languages and the Liberal Arts. This event is free and open to the public.

The Carleton College Jazz Ensembles will perform their fall concert on Sunday, November 1 at 3 p.m. in the Carleton College Concert Hall. The program will feature music ranging from the Big band era to modern compositions. This event is free and open to the public.

Carleton College will celebrate the traditional Mexican Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on Monday, Nov. 2 at 5:30 p.m. in the Severance Great Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

As part of its ongoing lecture series on anthropology and globalization, Carleton’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology presents “From Local Identities to a Global Movement: Indigenous Rights Today” by Jay Levi, department chair. The lecture is at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, October 30, in Leighton Hall, room 330. All lectures in the series are free and open to the public; coffee and bagels will be provided.

Adam Karas '10, a senior  majoring in international relations with a concentration in the Middle East and East Asia, has received a 2009 Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundation scholarship in recognition of his efforts to promote a more peaceful and just world. Hawkinson Foundation scholarships are aimed at encouraging students who have already demonstrated a commitment to peace and justice to strive for those values in their educational pursuits and in their personal and professional lives.

The Carleton Players will present their first production of the academic year, Shakespeare’s timeless comedy Measure for Measure, at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, October 30 and 31 and November 6 and 7, in the College’s Arena Theater. This show is free and open to the public; reservations are encouraged.

On Friday, Oct.30, as part of its weekly convocation series, Carleton College is pleased to present finance and social investment expert Jonathan Morduch. Widely cited on issues of international development, poverty, and financial access, Morduch’s lecture is entitled, “How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day.” This event, which takes place at 10:50 a.m. in the College’s Skinner Memorial Chapel, is free and open to the public.

Carleton College students will celebrate Halloween with two special events to benefit the Northfield community. On Sunday, Oct. 25 from 3 to 5 p.m., student athletes and their coachs will host their 11th annual Halloween ‘Knight’ Carnival in the West Gym on the Carleton campus. The carnival invites pre-school through elementary-age children in Northfield to participate in numerous games and activities, including face-painting, a football toss, bowling, a relay race, and a “fishing” pond. Varsity athletic teams sponsor the different activities and also distribute candy and prizes. Children are encouraged to dress in costume and bring their parents for a fun, family-friendly Halloween “Knight.”  This event is free and open to the public.  

The Carleton College Symphony Band will perform their fall concert on Friday, October 30 at 8 p.m. in the Carleton College Concert Hall. The program will feature a unique theme – the selections will commemorate composers and events whose dates end in the numeral ‘9.’  This event is free and open to the public.

Arika Okrent, critically acclaimed author and member of the Carleton College Class of 1992, will present “MAN VS. LANGUAGE! LANGUAGE WINS!: How Language Inventors Turned the Enemy Into a Muse” on Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 4:30 p.m. in the College’s Language and Dining Center, room 104, followed by a reception with refreshments. Okrent’s lecture will cover topics from her recently published book In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language (Spiegel & Grau, 2009). Drawing on invented languages like the Klingon jargon of Star Trek and the international speech of Esperanto, Okrent artfully analyzes the themes and shortcomings of 900 years of man’s quest to design a better language. Okrent’s appearance is free and open to the public.

Get ready to dance! Everyone is invited to the third annual Northfield Harvest Stomp, a community contra dance, featuring the spirited music of the ever-popular band Contratopia. The dance takes place Friday, Oct. 23, from 7 to 10:30 p.m. at the Northfield Armory, located at 519 Division Street in downtown Northfield. And thanks to a generous grant from the Carleton CSA, Carleton students can attend this very fun event for free!