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Miss America 2020 Camille Schrier ’13 Visits Hun School

Image Source: Hun School of Princeton

Camille Schrier (Hun School ’13) became a viral sensation when she was crowned Miss America 2020. Schrier was the first person in the organization’s 100 year history to win the famous competition based on a STEM platform. Her talent was in fact a demonstration of a chemical reaction using hydrogen peroxide, sodium iodide, and dish soap. The result was a large foamy concoction which she dubbed “elephant toothpaste.”

Schrier is currently pursuing a doctorate of pharmacology at Virginia Commonwealth University and visited the Hun School in early January to speak with current students. Schrier made for an engaging guest and discussed everything from her path to Miss America, women’s leadership, drug education, the opioid crisis, how substance abuse effects cognitive behavior, and her experiences so far in the STEM field. more

PU’s Fund for Irish Studies Presents James Logenbach on W.B. Yeats

Poet James Longenbach. Photo Credit: Adam Fenster.

Princeton University’s Fund for Irish Studies (FIS) presents a lecture by James Logenbach on W.B. Yeats and his poem, “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen” on Friday, January 28, the 83rd anniversary of Yeats’ death, at 4:30 p.m. via Zoom webinar.

Princeton University professor and Co-Chair of the Fund for Irish Studies Paul Muldoon will provide a welcome and introduction. The lecture is free and open to the public. Register online at https://arts.princeton.edu/events/fund-for-irish-studies-poet-james-longenbach/.

Logenbach will give an account of William Butler Yeats’ (1865-1939) poem, discussing how it assumed its shape, and, more importantly, the influence of that shape on subsequent long poems written throughout the 20th century. Yeats won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. more

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at State Theatre NJ, Jan. 30

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) will perform at the State Theatre New Jersey (STNJ) in New Brunswick on Sunday, January 30 at 3 p.m. Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, RPO performs 200 concerts each season to a worldwide audience of more than half a million people. more

Frank Sinatra Statue Unveiled in Hoboken on Singer’s 106th Birthday

Frank Sinatra circa 1955 in Capitol Studios

One of the most famous Hoboken natives, Frank Sinatra, received his own six-foot-tall bronze statue on December 12, on what would have been the singer’s 106th birthday. The legendary personality and entertainer is depicted in a three-piece suit leaning against a flickering lamp post with his hat tilted to one side. The confident and charismatic look was a trademark of Sinatra’s and the singer’s own daughter, Tina, stated that the statue is of a strong likeness to her father. The statue was designed by Carolyn D. Palmer. more

An Evening with Harry Connick Jr. at Count Basie

Don’t miss An Evening with Harry Connick Jr. on Friday, February 4 at 8 p.m. at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank. Ticket prices start at $50 per person and doors open at 7 p.m.

Connick’s career has exemplified excellence across theater, film, and music. A best-selling musician, singer, and composer, he is particularly known for his live performances, which exude energy and fun, an attribute of his native New Orleans roots. Connick has appeared on Broadway and in over 20 feature films. He began singing and playing piano at age 5 with his musician father. more

Book by PU Professor Named to “Financial Times” Best Books List

A book authored by local historian Harold James has been named to the Financial Times’ Best Books of 2021: Politics List.

The War of Words: A Glossary of Globalization, published by Yale University Press, reveals the origins of key buzzwords and concepts used in contemporary political debate such as “neoliberalism,” “geopolitics,” and “globalization,” while highlighting communication challenges associated with their misuse. more

Jane Lynch – “A Swingin’ Little Christmas!” Live in Concert

Thursday, December 9 at 7:30 p.m.

What do you get when you mix one part cabaret, one part comedy, and one heaping helping of Christmas kitsch? A Swingin’ Little Christmas! It’s a fun fresh twist on the Christmas specials of the ’50s and’60s when harmonies were tight, and swing was the thing.

Starring Emmy and Golden Globe winner Jane Lynch (Glee, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), along with Kate Flannery (The Office, Dancing with the Stars), Tim Davis (Glee’s vocal arranger), and The Tony Guerrero Quintet. These top-notch talents will jingle your bells and get you in the holiday spirit faster than a glass of eggnog. more

Casey Abrams Trio at Ramapo College

The Berrie Center for the Arts at Ramapo College of New Jersey welcomes The Casey Abrams Trio on Saturday, December 4 at 8 p.m.

Casey Abrams burst onto the national scene with his appearance on Season 10 of American Idol. With his stand-up bass and smooth, vocals Abrams has carved out his unique jazz-funk sound. His brand-new album, “Casey Keysey,” was released in October. more

Paul Muldoon Livestream Event, December 1

Labyrinth Books in Princeton will host a hybrid, livestream event with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon on Wednesday, December 1 at 6 p.m. Muldoon will introduce his 14th collection of poetry, entitled Howdie-Skelp: Poems. He will be joined by fellow poet Michael Dickman.

A ‘howdie-skelp’ is the slap in the face a midwife gives a newborn. It’s a wake-up call. A call to action. The poems in Howdie-Skelp include a nightmarish remake of The Waste Land, an elegy for his fellow Northern Irish poet Ciaran Carson, a crown of sonnets that responds to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, a translation from the ninth-century Irish, and a Yeatsian sequence of ekphrastic poems that call into question the very idea of an ‘affront’ to good taste. Muldoon is a poet who continues not only to capture but to hold our attention. more

Celebrating Community and the Library: 2021 Virtual Events

Princeton Public Library invites book lovers to connect and enjoy community at the Beyond Words 2021 events. The virtual talks for November and December will conversations with journalist and novelist Omar El Akkad on November 12 at 7 p.m. and novelist Jean Hanff Korelitz on December 3 at 7 p.m. The cost to attend is $60 per participant, per event.

El Akkad is the author of the recently-released What Strange Paradise, which has been shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize for excellence in Canadian fiction. He is also the author of the award-winning 2017 novel American War. He will be joined in conversation by Professor Deborah Amos, the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, an NPR international correspondent, and recipient of a 2021-22 Berlin Prize Fellowship. more

Women Inspiring Women Celebrates its 8th Global Event at Montclair State

The 8th annual Women Entrepreneurship Week (WEW) at Montclair State University was kicked off by cosmetics giant Bobbi Brown in conversation with friend and award-winning WNBC-TV reporter Tracie Strahan.

Brown was one of a dozen speakers who shared their stories of pivoting, as well as of failures and successes along their entrepreneurial journeys with the in-person and virtual audience. WEW is a global event, as students and attendees from 250 universities in 40 countries and 48 states participated this year, said Mimi Feliciano, a Montclair State University Advisory Board member for The Mimi & Edwin Feliciano School of Business and board member of the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (FCE&I), which hosted the event. more

Hopewell Theater Screening of Moby Documentary, November 19

As part of the Hopewell Theater’s ongoing series, Films That Made Music, the central New Jersey theater presents Moby Doc on Friday, November 19 at 8 p.m.

With his first electronic single, “Go,” in 1991, Moby helped to define the music of an era. The mega-success of his 1999 album Play brought him into the stratosphere of fame when it became the best-selling electronic album of all time. more

“Secret History of American River People” with Artist/Director Wes Modes

Join Morven Museum for a virtual evening with Wes Modes to reveal “A Secret History of American River People” on Thursday, October 28 beginning at 6:30 p.m. Tickets range from $10-15 and can be purchased online at https://bit.ly/3ETY44D.

The painter and ornithologist Gerard Rutgers Hardenbergh lived and painted in a rustic houseboat along the shores of the Scow Ditch in Bay Head, New Jersey. For more than a century, shantyboat communities sprung up in industrial towns and out-of-the-way rural areas on rivers and lakes all over the continent. more

Fund for Irish Studies Series at PU Presents a Conversation with Novelist Roddy Doyle

Princeton University’s Fund for Irish Studies presents a conversation with award winning novelist, dramatist, and screenwriter Roddy Doyle led by scholar and critic Frintan O’Toole, co-chair of the series, on Friday, September 17 at 4:30 p.m. via Zoom. Princeton’s Howard G.B. Clark University Professor of the Humanities Paul Muldoon, co-chair of the series, will provide a welcome and introduction. The event opens the 2021-22 series, which will be virtual for the fall. The event is free and open to the public.

Doyle has written 12 novels, including The Commitments; Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, for which he won the Booker Prize in 1993; The Woman Who Walked Into Doors; and, most recently, Love. His latest book, a story collection called Life Without Children, will be published in the U.S. in spring 2022. Doyle has written eight books for children. He has also written for screen and stage. He is the co-founder of Fighting Words, which aims to help Irish children and young people to discover and harness the power of their own imaginations and creative writing skills. He lives in Dublin. more

Authors Pam Jenoff and Lisa Scottoline in Conversation, July 8

Princeton Public Library (PPL) presents an evening of historical fiction featuring two bestselling authors discussing their latest novels, one set in Poland during WWII and the other in prewar Italy. This is a virtual event hosted by the platform Crowdcast. The authors will be speaking from 8 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, July 8.

To register, visit https://princetonlibrary.libnet.info/event/5300423. This program is free to attend and is best suited for teens and adults. more

PPL Virtual Fundraiser, “Restoring Civility and Bringing Social Justice to American Life”

The Friends of the Princeton Public Library will host a virtual fundraiser on Saturday, January 30 at 11 a.m. via Zoom. “Restoring Civility and Bringing Social Justice to American Life: A Virtual Brunch and Talk” features four lifelong advocates for social justice as they share their vision for a more just, egalitarian, and united America. more

NJ Chef to Compete on Season 19 of FOX’s “Hell’s Kitchen”

The MC Hotel, in the heart of Montclair, N.J., has announced that its top chef competing on Season 19 of the hit culinary competition series, Hell’s Kitchen, starring Chef Gordon Ramsay. The new season premieres on Thursday, January 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX. more

“Charlie Chaplin: A Man of the World”

Documentary Feature Focuses on the Romani Roots of Cinema Legend Charlie Chaplin

Director-writer Carmen Chaplin is directing Charlie Chaplin, A Man of the World, a theatrical documentary feature that adds a hardly-explored new facet to the creator of the Tramp, one of the most iconic cinema characters in popular consciousness, plumbing Chaplin’s Romani roots and heritage. more

PSRC Premier Fall Fundraiser Event with Senator Al Franken

The Princeton Senior Resource Center (PSRC), a community nonprofit whose mission is to help older adults thrive, offers programs for enrichment and lifelong learning, no-cost social services, resource referrals, and much more. Its 2020 fall fundraiser on Saturday, October 17 at 6:30 p.m. includes VIP Virtual Cocktails, humor, and discussion with Senator Al Franken. more