Don’t miss out on Special Collection’s latest exhibition: 125 Years of Temple! The current exhibition, which explores Temple’s history through materials from the Templana-Conwellana collection, is closing next Thursday, so don’t miss out. Find out: What classes did the first students at Temple University take? What did campus look like 125 years ago? Who IS Russell Conwell anyway? Find out as the Special Collections Department explores 125 years at Temple through materials from the Conwellana-Templana Collection. Paley Library, 1st Floor and Mezzanine

Secret Cinema, Films from the Urban Archives Secret’s From Philadelphia’s Past December 11, 8:00 pm Auditorium, Moore College of Art and Design 20th and Race Streets Don’t miss the greatest hits from the first Urban Archives/Secret Cinema program held last spring. We’ve unearthed great tidbits of Philadelphia history from the Archives’ film collections to be shown again by Jay Schwartz’s Secret Cinema. Th e first program was wildly popular and included short news outtakes of the last game at Connie Mack Stadium, the original Electric Factory, the Columbia Avenue Riots, the MOVE incident, the old Broad Street Station and more. Footage during this program will also include clips from two 1966 documentaries: Assignment: 1747 Randolph Street and The Spirit of Philadelphia: The Unending Renaissance. Don’t miss out on an original Philadelphia experience!

December 2 2:00 p.m. Charles L. Blockson Afro American Collection Sullivan Hall, 1330 W. Berks Street The Blockson Collection, in conjunction with Larry Robbins and the bookstore Moonstone, presents a conversation on the legacy of John Brown. This discussion, John Brown in the African Mind, will feature renowned scholars Charles L. Blockson, founder of the Blockson Collection, and Molefi K. Asante of Temple’s African American Studies Department. Charles L. Blockson is a renowned historian and bibliophile from Norristown, PA. He has dedicated his life to collecting and preserving African and African American history, arts and culture. His life’s work created this rich, historical collection at Temple, which opened in 1984. Molefi K. Asante is a Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University. He is the author of seventy books, including African American History: A Journey of Liberation.

Wednesday, November 18 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., Paley Library Lecture Hall Temple University Libraries Celebrate National GIS Day! On Wednesday, November 18th, 2009, join Temple University Libraries in celebrating National GIS Day. The two hour event will begin at 11:00 AM with presentations by invited speakers, followed with a reception. Matthew Harris will make the first presentation. A Master’s graduate from Temple’s Anthropology Department, Harris will speak on the topic of applying GIS skills in the Social Sciences. He will draw on his experiences as an archeologist, GIS analyst, and GIS manager to discuss the importance of finding a niche and creatively using GIS in a chosen field of study. Using examples from current and past projects, he will illustrate ways that GIS is applied to the field of Cultural Resources and more broadly to a number of GIS applications. The second presentation will be given by Robert Cheetham, founder and CEO of Avencia Inc., a software design and development firm for geospatial analysis tools and services, with particular expertise in natural resource planning, economic development, crime analysis, real estate property analysis, and cultural resources. He also serves on the advisory board of the Penn State Master’s in GIS program, and has served as the Senior GIS Developer for the City of Philadelphia and as Crime Analyst for the Philadelphia Police Department. In his presentation, Cheetham will highlight recent GIS initiatives at Avencia, including the PhillyHistory project as well as describe how the Avencia staff integrate GIS training. The presentations will be followed by a reception with light fare and opportunities to meet the speakers and other guests. Please forward this announcement to students and others who are interested in GIS. I look forward to seeing everyone in the Philadelphia GIS community.

November 12, 2:30 p.m., Paley Library Lecture Hall Did you know that nearly a quarter of the city of Philadelphia’s budget is spent on criminal justice and jails? Our prisons are now overcrowded, stuffed with first-time offenders. Legal experts and public administrators know, there are many different ways to approach these problems. Hear from an incredible panel of experts on this issue. State Superior Court Justice Ron Castille and former Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson will join Temple professors for a conversation moderated by former Mayor John Street for the latest installment of Chat in the Stacks.

Special Collections Showcase Celebrating 125 Years of Temple November 4, 4:00 p.m., Paley Library, Mezzanine, Special Collections Reading Room Get up close and personal with Temple’s history as a diverse and vibrant educational institution. The Libraries’ Special Collections Department oversees the Conwellana-Templana Collection, Temple’s unofficial university archives and a rich repository of materials related to Russell Conwell and the university’s birth. This showcase will offer an opportunity to speak with curators at the Special Collections Department and hold Temple’s history in your hands. Please also visit the companion exhibition Celebrating 125 Years at Temple: Materials from the Conwellana-Templana Collection happening this fall.

A Film Series Curated by Wolgin Prize Finalist Sanford Biggers Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring, Dir. Kim Ki-duk, 2003, 103 min. October 28, 7:00 p.m., Paley Library Lecture Hall A beautiful and meditative film in five parts; it follows the life of a Buddhist monk from his formative years as an apprentice through old age. Sanford Biggers has selected four films to be screened in conjunction with his exhibition at Tyler Gallery. These films approach African American identity in American history, from the 1930s through the present day, through cultural mediums including music, dance, film and religion. This event is part of a series of collaborative public programs presented in conjunction with the Tyler School of Art’s Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts Additional Films Two additional films selected by Sanford Biggers will be screened at Tyler School of Art, Lower Level, B04. Visit www.temple.edu/tyler/exhibitions for more details.

A Panel Discussion on the Work of Wolgin Prize Finalist Michael Rakowitz October 15, 5:30 p.m., Paley Library Lecture Hall At this event, scholars and critics will examine Michael Rakowitz’s art as social commentary that explores problematic urban situations. The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, the focus of Rakowtiz’s WolginPrize exhibition, discusses objects stolen from the National Museum of Iraq in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of April 2003. This piece attempts to make “war culture” more visible in America in the hopes that outrage over the stolen objects translates to outrage towards the loss of life. Participants include Temple University’s Susan Feagin, Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Temple University and Editor of The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism; Philip Glahn, Assistant Professor in the Department of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture, Tyler School of Art; Dustin Kidd, Assistant Professor, Sociology; and Srdjan Jovanović Weiss, Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at Tyler School of Art. This event is part of a series of collaborative public programs presented in conjunction with the Tyler School of Art’s Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts About Wolgin Prize Finalist Michael Rakowitz Based in Chicago and New York, Michael Rakowitz’s (b. 1973, New York) art practice is characterized by its exploration of and symbolic interventions with problematic urban situations, as well as endeavors to make visible other urgent moments of silence, invisibility, and marginality. In 1998, he initiated paraSITE, an ongoing project in which the artist custom builds inflatable shelters for homeless people that attach to the exterior outtake vents of a building’s heating, ventilation, or air conditioning system. Other recent projects include the public work, Return, presented by Creative Time in New York, and The invisible enemy should not exist. His work has been exhibited in venues worldwide including P.S. 1, Long Island City, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; MASSMoCA, North Adams, MA; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; and biennials and triennials including the 16th Biennale of Sydney; the 10th Istanbul Biennial; Sharjah Biennial 8; the Tirana Biennale; the National Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt; and Transmediale 05. He also has been the recipient of a number of prestigious international artist grants and fellowships, and has had numerous solo exhibitions at galleries and art spaces through the U.S. and Europe, including a forthcoming show at the Tate Modern in London.