N.J. Legislature marks its 250th anniversary with ceremonial session and ‘return home’ to Princeton’s Nassau Hall
Members of the New Jersey General Assembly and Senate met at Princeton University on Feb. 5 in the Faculty Room of Nassau Hall for a special ceremonial session recognizing the 250th anniversary of the first official meeting of the New Jersey Legislature.
Nassau Hall was the site of the legislature’s inaugural meeting on Aug. 27, 1776, where its members elected the state’s first governor, William Livingston, and convened on campus through November. The legislature officially moved its chambers to Trenton’s State House when the city became the permanent state capital in 1790.
“Today isn’t simply a change in venue for us — it’s a return home,” Assembly Speaker Craig J. Coughlin said in his opening remarks: “A return to our beginnings, to the place where our legislature first met in 1776 at the dawn of a new and uncertain democracy.”
Read on princeton.edu
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Behind the scenes: How a Princeton lecturer strengthened cultural connections through a partnership with McCarter Theatre on “Kim’s Convenience”
Susie Kim, a lecturer in Princeton’s Department of East Asian Studies (EAS) and interim director of the Korean Language Program, has become a valuable partner to McCarter Theatre, bridging language, culture and community through her Korean-language translations for recent productions.
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From WHYY: Princeton University Library marks America’s 250th with Revolutionary War artifacts and stories
This spring, to commemorate America’s semiquincentennial and the Battle of Princeton, Princeton University Library is displaying its collection of Revolutionary War artifacts and stories.
“Nursery of Rebellion: Princeton and the American Revolution” will feature items that connect Princeton and the surrounding community to the Revolutionary War era. The exhibit will open April 15 at the Ellen and Leonard Milberg Gallery at Princeton University’s Firestone Library and will run through July 12.
In addition to copies of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, visitors can experience other artifacts from the era. Among the prominent items on display is a signed copy of enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley’s book “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.” She is considered to be the first African American author of a published book.
Read on whyy.org
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From Princeton Alumni Weekly: Prison Teaching Initiative Marks 20 Years Amid Funding Hurdles
Nationwide, only a small fraction of incarcerated individuals have access to college-level education — in some estimates, as few as 6%. For the past 20 years, the Prison Teaching Initiative (PTI) has sought to expand that access, offering higher education courses and mentorship to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students across New Jersey.
Read on paw.princeton.edu
| | America250: Princeton Celebrates | | |
Expert Panel
America @ 250: Reconstructions
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, join us for “America at 250: Reconstructions,” an expert panel discussion examining how the nation has repeatedly reinvented itself—and what those moments of transformation can teach us today. The discussion brings together faculty experts across history, national security, law, race and equity, and politics. The panel will explore past and present “reconstructions,” democratic resilience, constitutional change, civil-military relations, and the enduring struggles over rights, power, and inclusion. Together, panelists will consider how historical lessons can inform policy choices and democratic governance in a deeply polarized contemporary moment.
Free registration required on spia.princeton.edu. Note: Room changed to McCosh Hall, Room 10.
Tuesday, February 17
12:00 PM
McCosh Hall, Room 10
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Princeton University Concerts presents
Joyce DiDonato, Mezzo-soprano
Time for Three
Be a part of the New Jersey premiere of Emily–No Prisoner Be, an exciting semi-staged song cycle inspired by Emily Dickinson’s timeless poetry which still resonates 150 years after her death. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts, named Musical America’s 2024 Composer of the Year, created this new work specifically for mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato—hailed as “a stunning triumph” (Variety) for her role in Puts’ The Hours at the Metropolitan Opera—and the genre-defying Time for Three trio, whose recording of Puts’s Triple Concerto won multiple Grammy Awards in 2023. Under the stage direction of Marie Lambert-Le Bihan, this powerhouse ensemble of PUC fan-favorite artists will celebrate Dickinson’s fearless exploration of identity, freedom, and social norms, promising an unforgettable evening celebrating one of literature’s most iconic voices with some of the greatest musical voices of our time.
Purchase tickets on concerts.princeton.edu.
Sunday, February 22
3:00 PM
Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall
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Liminality by Matthew Cooperberg ’26
In this new play by Princeton senior Matthew Cooperberg, Quinn Marion rebels against academia in their pursuit of proving quantum mechanics false. Grace Sy navigates a gender crisis to find themself with the help of old friends. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure called Kit encourages both of them to experiment in increasingly dangerous ways. As they seek certainty in the unknown, their lives and their experiments in quantum mechanics and gender exploration collide. Cooperberg, who is also directing, is a physics major and theater minor experimenting through theater how quantum mechanics and gender exist beyond empirical determination. Audience members will be invited to take short pre-show and post-show quizzes and to participate in a 20-minute post-show talkback to learn more about the physics concepts and gender issues explored in the production.
Reserve free tickets on tickets.princeton.edu
February 13 and 14 at 7:30 PM
February 15 at 2:00 PM
Drapkin Studio at Lewis Arts Complex
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The Ronald E. Hatcher Science on Saturday Lecture series has been held for more than 40 years.
This annual series of lectures is given by scientists, engineers, and other professionals involved in cutting-edge research. Held on Saturday mornings throughout winter, the lectures are geared toward high school students. The program draws more than 300 students, teachers, parents, and community members. Topics are selected from a variety of disciplines.
On February 14, Julie Lockwood of Rutgers University presents Biodiversity, Paint Rollers and DNA: Welcome to the Revolution.
Free and open to the public.
Saturday, February 14
9:30 AM
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, 100 Stellarator Road, Princeton
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Pop-Up Valentines
Show your love with a handmade pop-up card!
Drop in to the Princeton University Art Museum Creativity Labs to create a pop-up card for Valentine’s Day, inspired by works in the collections.
Free and open to the public.
Saturday, February 14
2:00 PM to 4:30 PM
Princeton University Art Museum
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Fall 2025 Student Film Screenings
The Program in Visual Arts presents 40+ short student films created in fall 2025 semester courses, including “Filmmaking: 16mm Analog Film Production” and “Making the Vampire Film” taught by Christopher Harris; “Representation in Documentary Filmmaking” taught by Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt; “Animation I” taught by Tim Szetela; “Alternative Fiction: Short Form Filmmaking” taught by Nicolás Pereda; and “Narrative Filmmaking I” taught by Moon Molson.
Free and open to the public.
February 16 & 18
7:30 PM
James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street
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VIS Book & Poster Show
An exhibition of innovative poster designs and artists’ books by the seniors and juniors in the Program in Visual Arts.
Free and open to the public.
On display February 16-March 15
Gallery open weekdays 8:00 AM to 8:30 PM; weekends 9:00 AM to 8:30 PM
Hagan Gallery at 185 Nassau Street
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Reading by Didi Jackson and Major Jackson
Award-winning poet Didi Jackson, a Poetry Society of America honoree, and acclaimed poet Major Jackson, recipient of a Pushcart Prize and a Whiting Writers’ Award, read from their work as part of the 2025-26 Althea Ward Clark W’21 Reading Series. The writers’ books will be available to purchase and have signed.
Free and open to the public.
Tuesday, February 17
6:00 PM
Labyrinth Books, 122 Nassau Street
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Tressie McMillan Cottom and Kate Manne
In Conversation
Join us as Tressie McMillan Cottom and Kate Manne engage in a wide-ranging conversation on feminism, gender, race, culture, education, and current events.
Tressie McMillan Cottom is is a sociologist, professor and cultural critic known for her incisive essays on social problems. She is the author of two books: “Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy” and “Thick: And Other Essays.” Her second book was a 2019 finalist for the National Book Award for nonfiction. She has been a New York Times Opinion columnist since 2022. She is a Professor with the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill and the recipient of a 2020 MacArthur “genius” Fellowship.
Kate Manne is a Professor at the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University. Her books include Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny (2018), which won the APA book prize and the PROSE award for philosophy and the humanities, Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women (2020), an Atlantic book of the year, and Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia (2024), a National Book Award Finalist in non-fiction. In addition to her academic work, she frequently writes pieces for wider audiences, including in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic, as well as her Substack newsletter, More to Hate.
Copies of books by Kate Manne and Tressie McMillan Cottom will be handed out to the first 150 in-person attendees.
Free and open to the public.
Wednesday, February 18
5:00 PM
McCosh Hall, Room 50
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After Noon Concert Series
The After Noon Concert Series is a weekly opportunity for the Princeton Community to enjoy performances at the Princeton University Chapel by various local, national, and international organists. These half-hour concerts showcase the flexibility of the magnificent Skinner/Mander Chapel organ. Each visiting organist rehearses and performs, bringing forth a different voice and character from the organ.
Free and open to the public.
Thursday, February 19
12:30 PM
Princeton University Chapel
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The Prison Teaching Initiative seeks to bridge Princeton University’s academic and service-driven missions by providing the highest-quality postsecondary education to incarcerated students in New Jersey; offering Princeton University graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff innovative, evidence-based pedagogy training and the chance to diversify their teaching portfolios through intensive classroom experience; and fostering a robust campus dialogue on mass incarceration and its relationship to systemic inequalities in access to education.
Register for the livestream on alumni.princeton.edu.
Thursday, February 19
4:30 PM
Online Event
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Drawing from the Collections: Drapery & Anatomy with Colored Pencils
Draw (and de-stress!) with virtual art classes inspired by Princeton University Art Museum collections.
From coloring-book enthusiasts to professional illustrators, everyone loves colored pencils! For the winter installment of our popular virtual art-making series, rediscover the medium’s precision and versatility with guidance from artist-instructor Barbara DiLorenzo. Each week’s lesson will be inspired by a work in the Museum’s Orientation Gallery, where beloved works from our collections are back on view after six years.
Register for the livestream on artmuseum.princeton.edu.
Thursday, February 19
8:00 PM
Online Event
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Thomas Edison Film Festival Premiere Screening
The 45th anniversary season of the renowned Thomas Edison Film Festival (TEFF) will premiere with a pre-event reception and screening followed by a Q&A with filmmakers. TEFF is a designated Academy Awards® Qualifying Festival and a Canadian Screen Award Qualifying Festival. The Stellar Award-winning short films to be screened, representing animation, documentary, experimental, narrative and screen dance genres, will also be available to view online for one week, from February 21 through 28, on the TEFF website.
Free and open to the public.
Friday, February 20
Pre-screening reception: 6:30 PM
Screening: 7:00 PM
James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street
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Manual for a Desperate Crossing
by María Irene Fornés
In the sea, six people have to think like one. Manual for a Desperate Crossing is an epic migratory montage that follows a group of Cuban rafters, or “balseros,” fleeing to the United States in the mid-1990s. Cuban-American playwright María Irene Fornés crafts this one-act with her distinctively stylized prose, which draws from real-life testimonies of balseros, to create a vast landscape of overlapping fears and dreams. The solidity and security of a home lost to a precarious raft, a better future conflicting with an unyielding past, the fight to exist within nature and against nature; these oppositions materialize on stage like narrative tableaus, memorializing the histories of the thousands who have undertaken these desperate crossings. Directed by Princeton junior Didi Vekri with lighting design and dramaturgy by senior Elena Milliken. In English with English and Spanish captions for all performances.
Reserve free tickets on tickets.princeton.edu.
February 20, 21, 26, 27 and 28
8:00 PM
Wallace Theater at Lewis Arts Complex
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Art for Families
Unpredictable Art
Saturdays are for young makers in the Princeton University Art Museum Creativity Labs! Experiment with art supplies, inspired by the work of Helen Frankenthaler.
Drop in anytime between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. to explore a work of art, play with different materials, and exercise your imagination. Come for fifteen minutes or two hours—whatever your schedule allows. All ages are welcome; no tickets or reservations required.
Helen Frankenthaler developed a new painting technique called staining. This allowed the paint to soak into the canvas in unpredictable ways. This week we’ll embrace the unpredictability of art together and see where the creativity flows! We provide the materials, you bring the creativity!
Saturday, February 14
10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Princeton University Art Museum
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Science Saturday
Science Outreach at Princeton University offers Science Saturday programs at local libraries. Students in 2nd to 5th grade will in engage in hands-on science activities.
Free registration required. Registration for Princeton Public Library opens February 7 on princetonlibrary.org. Registration for Ewing Branch Library will be available on mcl.org.
Saturday, February 14
10:00 AM to 11:00 AM at Ewing Branch Library
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM at Princeton Public Library
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Images
N.J. Legislature - Photo by Matthew Raspanti, Office of Communications
Kim's Convenience - Photo by Dahlia Katz, courtesy of McCarter Theatre
Prison Teaching Initiative - Photo by Matthew Raspanti, Office of Communications
Drawing from the Collection - Jacques-Louis David and studio, The Death of Socrates, after 1787. Princeton University Art Museum. Museum purchase, gift of Carl D. Reimers. Photo: Bruce M. White
Manual for a Desperate Crossing - Photo by Angel Chang Liu
Art for Families - Helen Frankenthaler, Belfry, 1979. Princeton University Art Museum. Promised gift of Preston H. Haskell, Class of 1960. © Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Douglas J. Eng
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