We invite you to browse panels about the scripts of ancient Egypt, indigenous languages of Central and South America, languages of Southeast Asia, and more – including the English language and language used in graffiti and comics.

This exhibit highlights the possibilities for exploration and discovery within the library’s collections, which are impressive on many levels. The sheer number of materials, including more than 8.5 million volumes in locations all over campus, and access to millions of digital books, journals and images, makes it one of the largest university library systems in the United States. The collection encompasses ancient documents written on papyrus, electronic journals reporting on the latest advances in science and medicine, and materials from nearly every period, culture, and way of thought in between.

Preeminent American sculptor Mark di Suvero (b. 1933) is best known for his dynamic and monumental works made of industrial steel and salvaged materials that populate museum grounds, landscapes, and urban environments around the world. In addition to countless exhibitions and awards, in March 2011 di Suvero was honored with the National Medal of the Arts by President Obama in a White House ceremony. This exhibition, organized by UMMA and on view exclusively in Ann Arbor, features approximately 15 of di Suvero's rarely exhibited smaller scale pieces, or tabletops, from the 1950s to the present. The tabletops are not maquettes of larger-scale works but an expressionistic and engaging genre all their own, an outlet for exploring ideas relating to the calligraphic nature of form, balance, proportion, and movement. Drawing from numerous private collections as well as the artist's studio, the exhibition offers the opportunity to experience this intimate work in the Museum's ground level, glass-walled Irving Stenn, Jr, Family Project Gallery, adjacent to the two di Suvero outdoor steel sculptures on the Museum's grounds–Orion (2006) and Shang (1984–85).

This exhibition is made possible in part by the Office of the President of the University of Michigan, the University of Michigan Health System, and Laura Lynch and Hugh McPherson.

This is the first part of a two-part exhibition introducing exciting, recently acquired works from UMMA's collections gifted to the museum during the past five years. Recent Acquisitions: Curator's Choice, Part I presents a first look at artworks, mostly prints, drawings, and photographs by artists as diverse as Annie Leibovitz, Edward Steichen, and Rembrandt van Rijn. Carole McNamara, Senior Curator of Western Art, chose works that focus on some of the enduring and compelling themes that have occupied artists in Europe and America. One is the preoccupation with the human form as an expression of ideas, feelings, and sensations. This selection begins with the tradition of the academic nude study and progresses to embrace different genres, from both secular and religious contexts. Another selection-landscapes and cityscapes-are each opportunities for artists to speak to our relationship to the natural world-both in how we experience landscape as well as how we construct our own urban environments.

This exhibition is made possible in part by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost.

The tiny dramas that comprise Robert Wilson's Video 50 contain aspects of his hallmark aesthetic: surreal or dream-like imagery, the absence of a linear narrative, the conflation of seemingly unrelated characters and micro-stories, and a mesmerizingly slow pace. Video 50 consists of a randomly arranged set of 30-second "episodes," a few of which feature notable French personalities of the 1970s-perfumier Hélène Rochas stares down a mugger, culture minister Michel Guy struggles to open a dresser drawer-and Wilson thought of these as miniature portraits or character studies. The creator and director of aggressively experimental theater, Wilson first came to prominence with works from the mid-1970s such as The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin (1973) and Einstein on the Beach (1976). These lavish, unusually long productions broke and then redefined every convention of theater. In Video 50 his shorter time-based portraits explore the intersection of narrative and still-life, seductively dissolving the distance between viewer and subject.

Each workshop will provide knowledge and experiential practice of basic mindfulness skills. Mindfulness can help to reduce daily stresses, cultivate greater awareness of the present, and accept life's difficulties. Workshops may include: introductory principles of mindfulness, sitting and walking meditations, emotion awareness, and relaxation breath work. Students are welcome to attend any week.

Schedule an appointment through the Communications Department to meet with a Career Advisor from The Career Center at North Quad

Presented by: Rachel Kramer, Project Manager, University of Michigan Solar Car Team

The evolution of separate sexes (dioecy) has occurred numerous times across the tree of life. Nevertheless, the evolutionary forces that promote and maintain dioecy remain elusive. Here we found evidence for at least 133 transitions between sexual systems in mosses, representing an extremely high level of sexual lability. In sharp contrast to predictions, the transition rate from hermaphroditism to dioecy was twice as high as the reverse transition. These results have important implications for understanding the genomic and macroevolutionary consequences of hermaphroditism and dioecy.

The "Silk and Bamboo" (sizhu 絲竹) ensemble music of Shanghai is generally known as a traditional Chinese genre. Its sounds are commonly celebrated as embodying the Chinese ideals of harmoniousness and blendedness. Despite these traditional images, however, the genre established its present-day urban identity largely through modern developments in the early twentieth century, when Shanghai grew as a semi-colonial metropolitan. In this period, especially during the interwar decades, musical reformers of diverse visions and backgrounds were gathering increasing social and political capital to pursue their modernity agendas. Those who advocated Western classical music as the foundation of modern Chinese music clashed with those who defended the validity of native musical establishments and sounds. Many of the latter, whom I describe as defenders in the politics of Chinese musical modernity, drew from "Silk and Bamboo" music and ideals to maintain a refined Chineseness in the rapidly changing soundscape of modern China. But these defenders also embraced selected Western musical practices to pursue their modernity interests. In the lecture, I will examine the development and discourses of "Silk and Bamboo" music as a constitutive force of Chinese musical modernity. Development of the genre after 1949, especially in the past two decades, will also be discussed.

Lecture is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

This lecture is organized in conjunction with

Performance by Chamber Ensemble of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra

Presented by University Musical Society, sponsored by the Confucius Institute at U-M. Friday, February 10 | 8 pm Rackham Auditorium For tickets to the performance, please visit www.ums.org

If you struggle to form connections with new people, then this session will be helpful to you. We will explore strategies for meeting new people and forming new friendships. Depending on the needs of the participants, we may also talk about ways to deepen the friendships that you already have.

Calvin Forbes lives in Chicago and teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the author of two books, Blue Monday and The Shine Poems. Recent publications include the July/August issue of Poetry Magazine and Fall Poet Lore Magazine.

UMMA is pleased to be the site for the Department of English Program in Creative Writing Zell Visiting Writers Series, which brings outstanding writers each semester. The Series is made possible through a generous gift from UM alumna Helen Zell ('64). For more information, please see www.lsa.umich.edu/english/grad/mfa/mfaeve.asp.

Juan R. I. Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. For three decades, he has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context. His most recent book is Engaging the Muslim World (Palgrave Macmillan, March, 2009). He has been a regular guest on PBS's Lehrer News Hour, and has also appeared on ABC Nightly News, Nightline, the Today Show, Charlie Rose, Anderson Cooper 360, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, the Colbert Report, Democracy Now! and many others. He has written widely about Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and South Asia. He has commented extensively on al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the Iraq War, the politics of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Iranian domestic struggles and foreign affairs. Cole commands Arabic, Persian and Urdu and reads some Turkish, knows both Middle Eastern and South Asian Islam. He lived in various parts of the Muslim world for nearly 10 years, and continues to travel widely there.”

*The Coalition for Queer People of Color, H.E.A.D.S., and the LGBT Issues Commission invites you to join us for a night you won't soon forget!

Recently described as one of the most highly sought after slam poets in Philadelphia, J Mase III is a BLACK/TRANS/GAY/ROWDY-AS-HELL performance artist who has rocked the house from venues in San Francisco to New York City. Now he's coming to Ann Arbor to bring us his perspective on life, love and heartbreak. J Mase has the power to draw in ANY crowd with his style, witt and in-your-face performance. You definitely don't want to miss out:

7-7:30p Introduction/Open Mic 7:30-8:15p J Mase III 8:15p-8:30p Question & A with J Mase 8:30-10p Mixer

Sponsored by the Office of Multi-ethnic Student Affairs (MESA) and the Spectrum Center

*The Coalition for Queer People of Color is a NEW campus organization made up of Michigan students, faculty and staff all committed to building community around, and highlighting the lived experiences of, queer people of color.

Questions? Email the coalition@umich.edu

Please join us for a showing and Q&A discussion of the movie "Traffic."

Recently described as one of the most highly sought after slam poets in Philadelphia, J Mase III is a BLACK/TRANS/GAY/ROWDY-AS-H...ELL performance artist who has rocked the house from venues in San Francisco to New York City. Now he's coming to Ann Arbor to bring us his perspective on life, love and heartbreak. J Mase has the power to draw in ANY crowd with his style, wit and in-your-face performance. You definitely don't want to miss out.

Explore the craft of three-dimensional paper movement!

Christopher James Lees, conductor. Featuring the music of guest composer in residence Sydney Hodkinson, this new music concert will feature an evening of works with commentary and insight from the composer himself. This program will also continue in the survey of Berio Sequenzae as part of the Berio Sequenza Project. PROGRAM: Berio - Sequenza v for trombone solo; Hodkinson - Requiescant, Some Assembly Required

William Fitzsimmons is, by his own testimony, one of the oddest people you will ever meet. Born the youngest child of two blind parents in Pittsburgh, he grew up in a house filled with a myriad of sounds to replace what eyes could not see. The household was suffused with pianos, guitars, trombones, talking birds, classical records, family sing-a-longs, bedtime stories, and the bellowing of a pipe organ, which his father built into the house with his own hands. When his father's orchestral records were not resonating through the walls, his mother would educate him on the folk stylings of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Simon & Garfunkel. After achieving his goal of becoming a practicing therapist, William returned again to his love of crafting and playing songs. Somewhere between a singing therapist and a counselor who writes songs, he is often compared to contemporaries Sufjan Stevens, Iron and Wine, and the late Elliott Smith. He uses banjo, melodica, ukulele, mandolin, and sometimes electronic elements in his music. William's new release, "Gold In The Shadow," is a musical reflection of the personal resuscitation and psychological renovation, which took place in the years following his divorce. Based on a specific set of psychopathological disorders from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV), he describes the songs as "a real and long-coming confrontation with personal demons, past mistakes, and the specter of mental illness that has hovered over me for the great majority of my life." However, whereas nearly the whole of William's previous albums have dealt with the bleak and somber side of inter- and intrapersonal disaster, "Gold"is a work focused on healing. William continues: "I had reached the point where I was either going to yield to my sicknesses or engage them headlong. In either case, I could no longer continue the way I was."

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory is the basis for acupuncture, acupressure/Shiatsu massage, Emotional Freedom Techniques, Chinese herbal therapy, and other! But TCM is more than just treatment and cures; like Ayurveda, it is a way of living healthfully. Chenyi Xue, UM bioinformatics grad student from China, will tell us what it means to have a balance of Yin and Yang in the body and mind. Learn about the flow of Qi energy along the body’s meridians. Please join MAMC for this exciting multimedia presentation!

PROGRAM: Beethoven - Sonata for Piano and Cello in C Major; Barber - Sonata for Cello ad Piano; Chopin - Sonata for Cello and Piano; Ginastera - Pampeana no. 2, Rhapsody for cello and piano

PROGRAM: Neuling - Bagatelle; Adler - Sonata for Horn; Berge - Horn-lokk; Reinecke - Trio for Piano, Oboe & Horn, Op. 188