What's happening at Penn State? Here's a look at some of the cultural events taking place at the University this weekend and next week:
Performances
African American Music Festival — Feb. 1-3, various sites at University Park campus. The annual event celebrates the music of African Americans and African-American composers. Free.
"My Anxiety: A Work in Progress" — 5:30 p.m., Feb. 2, 16 Borland Building, University Park campus. William Dean, director of the School of Theatre and professor of theatre, will perform. Free.
Events
"Blind Date with a Book" — Jan. 22-Feb. 16, Franklin Atrium, Pattee Library, University Park campus. Shelves will be filled with both fiction and non-fiction books available for students to take on a reading date. Free.
"Cinderella's Ball" — 3 p.m., Feb. 3, Schlow Centre Region Library, State College. Learn basic ballroom dance steps with the Penn State Ballroom Dance Club and Centre for Performing Arts. Free.
"FIRST LEGO League Challenge" — 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Feb. 3, Beaver Community Center, Penn State Berks. The innovators of tomorrow will be practicing imaginative thinking and teamwork during this second annual event. Free.
"Ghosts of Amistad: In the Footsteps of Rebels" — 8 p.m., Feb. 6, State Theatre, State College. Tony Buba's documentary based on the book "The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom" will be screened with a Q&A session. Free.
"FaceAge" — 4 p.m., Feb. 8, Wolf-Kuhn Theatre, Misciagna Center for Performing Arts, Penn State Altoona. Penn State Laureate Andrew Belser will discuss his award-winning multimedia video installation. His exhibit, "FaceAge," will play on a 56-minute loop from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Titelman Study in the Misciagna Family Center. Free.
Virtual sculpting workshop — Noon-3 p.m., Feb. 9, Stuckeman School of Architecture, University Park campus. The Arts and Design Research Incubator will host a workshop featuring the basics of virtual sculpting and object creation with a haptic arm and other virtual sculpting options in this hands-on workshop. Free.
Lectures
"Finding Meteorites and Craters in the Erie Region" — 7:30 p.m., Feb. 1, 101 Otto Behrend Science Building, Penn State Behrend. Scott McKenzie, assistant professor of geology and paleontology director at Mercyhurst University, will discuss local craters and meteorites and how they can be found. Free.
"Understanding the Language-Learning Brain through Cyber-Enabled and Computational Methods" — 1:30 p.m., Feb. 7, 233A HUB-Robeson Center, University Park campus. Ping Li, professor of psychology, linguistics and information sciences and technology, will be featured. Free.
"International Law Under President Trump: A One-Year Assessment" — 4 p.m., Feb. 8, Sutliff Auditorium, Lewis Katz Building, University Park campus. John Bellinger, former legal adviser to the U.S. Department of State and the National Security Council under President George W. Bush, will be featured. Free, but registration required.
Exhibits
"Pop at the Palmer" — Jan. 9-May 13, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. Prints from the museum's permanent collection by Pop Art notables such as Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Free.
"Books Undone: The Art of Altered Books" — Jan. 11-Feb. 28, Madigan Library, Pennsylvania College of Technology. The exhibit features visually stunning reinventions of the printed page. Free.
"Deconstructing the Dream: At Whose Expense?" — Jan. 15-Feb. 28, Sidewater Commons, Pattee Library, University Park campus. Student poster entries from the annual contest to represent the 33rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Week at University Park campus are on display. Free.
"Dox Thrash, Black Life and the Carborundum Mezzotint" — Jan. 16-May 20, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. The exhibit features Philadelphia-based artist Dox Thrash, who pioneered a new approach to printmaking known as the carborundum process in the late 1930s. Free.
"What Big Eyes You Have! Looking at the Wolf in Fairy Tales" — Jan. 16-May 13, Eberly Family Special Collections Library exhibition room, 104 Paterno Library, University Park campus. The exhibit takes a close look at historical depictions of the wolf in well-known and lesser-known fairy tales. Free.
"Drawings and Prints by John McKaig" — Jan. 24-March 1, HUB Gallery, HUB-Robeson Center, University Park campus. McKaig's drawings and prints feature recognizable objects, spaces and figurative elements that are transferred and layered in order to depict his ever-changing identity. Free.
"Pedestrian Rules" — Jan. 25-March 3, Woskob Family Gallery, 146 S. Allen St., State College. Photographic and time-based works by Haigen G. Pearson, Tyson Washburn and Barbara Weissberger which explore commonplace sights to speculate about the viewers' relationship with ambiguity in everyday experience. Free.
"Field to Front: Nittany Lions at War, 1917-1919" — April 23, 2017-April 30, 2018, the Penn State All-Sports Museum, University Park campus. The exhibit chronicles the contributions of Nittany Lion lettermen during World War I and follows their service from training in the U.S. to fighting in France and Italy. Free.
"Keith Lemley: A Theory of Everything" — Oct. 26, 2017-Sept. 30, 2018, Woskob Family Gallery, 146 S. Allen St., State College. Penn State alumnus and artist Keith Lemley will craft a new work that combines maple and neon and unify them through geometry and form. Free.