Izzy Awards to recognize independent journalists

This year’s Izzy Award and I.F. Stone Hall of Fame ceremony, to be held at 7 p.m. April 28 in the Roy H. Park School of Communications  Auditorium, will feature four independent journalists. Hall of Fame inductee Glenn Greenwald will appear in a recorded video, and inductee Jeremy Scahill and award recipients John Carlos Frey and Nick Turse will speak in person at the ceremony as they accept national honors.

Frey and Turse are reporting fellows at the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute. They are sharing the sixth annual Izzy Award for “outstanding achievement in independent media” for 2013. Frey has investigated coverage on deaths which occurred on the border of U.S. and Mexico, while Tuse has uncovered civilian deaths in various U.S. wars.

Past Izzy Award winners Scahill and Greenwald will speak about their induction into the new hall of fame, which the Park Center for Independent Media established this year to honor Izzy Award winners who have continued to produce groundbreaking content worthy of the Izzy Award. Greenwald contributed to revealing NSA spying abuses, and Scahill focuses on the War on Terror as a national security reporter for Democracy Now! and The Nation. Greenwald and Scahill are founding editors of the new online publication The Intercept.

PCIM sponsors the award and the hall of fame, which are named in memory of the famous journalist I.F. “Izzy” Stone, who exposed governmental deception while encouraging civil liberties in “I.F. Stone’s Weekly” from 1953 to 1971.

Student-run opera to show modern coming-of-age hit

Ithaca College Light Opera, the college’s only student-operated performing arts company, will present “EDGES The Musical” at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. April 19 in the Presser Rehearsal Hall located in the James J. Whalen Center for Music.

The musical is a modern take on a coming-of-age story featuring men and women in their 20s who discover themselves through one another. Admission is free and open to the public.

Film director to present documentary screening

Dan Cohen ’76, film director and alumnus of the Roy H. Park School of Communications, will visit Ithaca college at 6:30 p.m. April 21 to present a screening of his documentary, “Space Shuttle Columbia: An Article of Hope” in Park 281.

The screening, Q&A and networking opportunity is part of Ithaca College Hillel’s Holocaust Education Series and is open to all campus and community members.

In his 30-year career, Cohen has won six Emmy Awards and has documented films from all over the world, from Middle East war zones to presidential inaugurations. He is the founder of West Street Productions, an Emmy Award–winning documentary film and production company. “An Article of Hope” has won three “Best Film” honors in festivals around the United States and in Hong Kong.

City of Ithaca to accept proposals for Latin mural

Submissions to the Latin@ Mural Project, a platform of CULTURA Ithaca and the Latino Civic Association of Tompkins County, are due by 1 p.m. May 23 to the Latino Civic Association in the City of Ithaca. The winning mural proposal, which will be announced June 6, will be painted on a 12-by-12 foot wall at the Tioga Street entrance to the Seneca Street parking garage in the summer of 2014.

The project seeks to celebrate Latin American culture in Tompkins County by honoring either a particular Latin American heritage or the culture in general through a public display of art.

Anyone is eligible to submit a mural proposal, and the winning artist will receive $500 to cover time and expenses used to create the mural. Several organizations have made the reward and program possible, including the Greater Ithaca Activities Center, Ithaca Public Art Commission and the Multicultural Resource Center.

Finished pieces will be the property of the city as part of a contract approved by the city attorney. The City of Ithaca has the right to reproduce these works for archives and promotional purposes, but it will not sell these reproductions without obtaining written consent from the artists.

UN panelist to visit Cornell to discuss 1994 genocide

To recognize the 20th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide of 1994, a roundtable discussion at Cornell University will feature a keynote address by Adama Dieng, the UN Secretary General’s special adviser of the committee for the Prevention of Genocide.

The event will be held at 4:30 p.m. April 17 in the Lewis Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall at Cornell University, followed by a panel discussion on the relevance of the Rwandan genocide for current conflicts.

The Rwandan genocide took place April to July of 1994, during which members of the Hutu ethnic majority group killed about 800,000 people, mostly consisting of the Tutsi minority group in Rwanda.

Kifle Gebremedhinm, professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell, will moderate the discussion. The event is part of the Foreign Policy Forum, which the Einaudi Center for International Studies is leading to increase awareness of Cornell’s resources that are available on the subject of foreign policy.

The panel will feature Consolee Nishimwe, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide who suffered physical torture during her three months of hiding and who speaks widely on the genocide and global women’s rights. Distinguished professors such as Muna Ndulo, professor of law and director of Cornell’s Institute for African Development, and Nicolas van de Walle, chair of the Department of Government and former director of the Einaudi Center, will also speak.

IC United Way to host carnival in Fitness Center

The Ithaca College Fitness Center will transform into an IC Family Carnival from 5:30–8 p.m. April 25. Community members and families can bring their children to the carnival to participate in arts and crafts, face painting, balloon animals and inflated bounce houses. The event will also feature live entertainment, a raffle and concessions suitable for families with children.

The entry fee is $3 for kids, $5 for people over 18 and $16 for parties of five or more. The Ithaca College Students United Way, the student organization that works in conjunction with the Tompkins County United Way, is allocating the funds raised to local nonprofits.

Questions about the event may be directed to senior Moriah Petty at [email protected]. Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Don Austin, assistant director of community service and involvement, at[email protected].