Nanette Shaw Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs PRESS CONTACT: David Manning 212. 817.7177 or 7170 dmanning@gc.cuny.edu For Immediate Release: DECEMBER PUBLIC PROGRAMS   The City University of New York Graduate Center announces the following public programs to be held during the month of December at The Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street. Through Saturday, December 9 The Painted Sculpture of Betty Parsons (art exhibition) Tuesday-Saturday, 12-6 PM, Art Gallery This exhibition is the first to focus on the vibrant painted constructions, reminiscent of folk and outsider art, that Parsons created from wood washed ashore.  It features 35 of these remarkable works that the legendary art dealer, who was also an accomplished painter and sculptor, made from 1966 until her death.  The Painted Sculpture of Betty Parsons was organized by the Naples Museum of Art (Naples, Florida), which lent the artworks, and curated by Judith Goldman.  The exhibition has been made possible by a generous grant from The Betty Parsons Foundation.  Informal talks on the exhibition will be presented by Art Gallery Curator Dr. Diane Kelder on Wednesdays at 1 pm.  Free, for information call 212-817-7394. Friday, December 1 Ibsen Plays on Screen: Film Series and Panel Discussion Rosmersholm (film screening & dicussion) 6:30 PM As part of a series commemorating the 100th anniversary of the playwright’s death, the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents a screening of Rosmersholm (2001, Norwegian with English subtitles).  Free, for information call 212-817-1861. Monday, December 4 Languages at Play in the Theatre:  The Tropic of X (play reading & discussion) 6:30 PM The evening will explore the political, social, and historical implications of staged language. A reading of excerpts from Cuban-American playwright Caridad Svich’s The Tropic of X will be followed by a dialogue between Graduate Center Distinguished Professor of Theatre Marvin Carlson and Svich.  Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.  Free, for information call 212-817-1861. Tuesday, December 5 Scenes from the City: Filmmaking in New York 1966-2006 (book talk) 6:30 PM The Gotham Center for New York City History presents this talk by author James Sanders.  New York in the last four decades has provided some of the most iconic moments in film history. Beginning with Breakfast at Tiffany's and Sixties cinema verite, Sanders will survey the body of work produced here, exploring in particular the emergence here of a street-style school of filmmaking that includes directors as diverse as Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee. He will also sign copies of his new book, Scenes from the City: Filmmaking in NY 1966-2006 (Rizzoli).  Free, reservations required at 212-817-8215. The Llibre Vermell of Montserrat (concert) 7 PM The Foundation for Iberian Music presents a complete performance of the Llibre Vermell of Montserrat (medieval pilgrim songs) by the early music ensemble Sendebar. Sendebar seeks to recapture the vibrant and exquisite art of medieval Mediterranean music with the intensity and drama of its powerful and timeless musical language.  The concert is preceded by a symposium on Catalan music, and followed by a panel discussion at 8 pm. Free, no reservations required; for information call 212-817-1819. Wednesday, December 6 International and World Theatre: An Evening with Romanian Playwright Saviana Stanescu and Richard Schechner (play reading & discussion) 6:30 PM This reading of Saviana Stanescu’s play Waxing West (to be produced by Richard Schechner's company East Coast Artists at La MaMa in spring 2007) will be followed by a discussion with the artists including Schechner, renowned experimental director and current NYU professor. Waxing West is Stanescu’s comment on the aftermath of the Romanian Revolution, in particular, and about collective traumas and the ways in which they affect individuals, in general.  Directed by Benjamin Mosse, the reading is presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. Free, for information call 212-817-1861. The Writer’s Conscience: Remembering Anna Politkovskaya and Russia’s Forgotten War (reading & discussion) 7:00 PM On October 7, 2006, Russian journalist and author Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in a contract killing while completing an article about on torture and human rights abuses in Chechnya.  This evening features readings from Politkovskaya’s works and a conversation about the costs of an ongoing but forgotten war.  Participants include Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation; journalist and author Kati Marton; Dana Priest Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Washington Post; David Remnick, writer and New Yorker editor, and special guests Musa Klebnikov (widow of murdered Russian magazine editor Paul Klebnikov) and Katya Sokirianskaia (of the “Memorial” Human Rights Center). Presented by the Center for the Humanities, and co-sponsored by the PEN American Center and the Committee to Protect Journalists.  Free, for information call 212-817-2005. Thursday, December 7 Buffalo Soldiers, Black Cowhands, Sheriffs and Outlaws (lecture) 6:30 pm In celebration of a new edition of The Black West on the 35th Anniversary of its original publication, the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean (IRADAC) hosts a series of lectures featuring its author, independent shcolar William Loren Katz, on the history of African American men and women on our early frontier. Free, for information call 212-650-2076. Monday, December 11 International and World Theatre: An Evening with Sabina Berman (Mexico) and Matéi Visniec (Romania/France) (play reading and discussion) 6:30 PM This evening features readings from The Heresy, by Mexican playwright Sabina Berman, directed by Marcy Arlin of Immigrants' Theatre Project; and The Word Progress On My Mother's Lips Doesn't Ring True, by Romanian/French playwright Matéi Visniec, directed by Ian Morgan of The New Group. Both plays tell the stories of societies imploding on themselves, destroying their own citizens in the name of religious righteousness while masking bigotry, ethnic hatred, and societal pathology.  Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.  Free, for information call 212-817-1861. Tesla’s Letters by Jeffrey Stanley (play reading) 7:00 PM Science & the Arts presents this reading of a play about Croatian-born American scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla, performed by Break-A-Leg Productions.  Stanley’s play is based on the writings of the widely noted eccentric and genius, whose work on electricity and magnetism may earn him the title “the man who invented the 20th century.”  Free, for information call 212-817-7522.   Tuesday, December 12 Ibsen Plays on Screen: Film Series and Panel Discussion Die Wildente (The Wild Duck) (film screening & dicussion) 6:30 PM As part of a series commemorating the 100th anniversary of the playwright’s death, the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents a screening of Screening of Die Wildente (The Wild Duck), a 1974 film adaptation in German with English subtitles.  Free, for information call 212-817-1861. Wednesday, December 13 The Last Days (film screening) 6:15 PM The Rosenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies presents a screening of The Last Days, winner of the 1998 Academy Award for best documentary, produced by Steven Spielberg and the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education.  Free, for information call 212-807-1949. Thursday, December 14 Music in Midtown: Cygnus Ensemble (concert) 1:00 PM New York music lovers can escape the din of midtown Manhattan with this series of free lunchtime concerts presented by the CUNY Graduate Center’s doctoral program in music.  The concerts feature classical and contemporary works performed by accomplished professional musicians in the Elebash Recital Hall, a warm, intimate space with state-of-the-art acoustics.  On December 14, Cygnus Ensemble, The Graduate Center’s resident contemporary chamber music ensemble, brings contemporary scores to life.  For more information, please contact the Concert Office at 212-817-8607, or phd-dmaconcert@gc.cuny.edu, or visit http://web.gc.cuny.edu/Music/events/concerts/html Friday, December 15 Rainbow's End (film screening) 7:00 PM This screening of a new documentary on the lives of lesbian, gay, bi and transgender people in Europe is presented by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies and Frameline Films. With the advent of same sex marriage, homosexuals have achieved near-equality in much of Europe, but is everything so rosy?  From parades and protests in Warsaw and Krakow to touching personal stories with social, religious and political insights, Rainbow's End is a starting point for any timely and relevant discussion regarding the future of LGBT people within Europe and throughout the world.  Free, for information call 212-817-1955.