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Community Connections
The Community Connections newsletter provides neighbors with campus news and highlights opportunities for community members to participate in campus life. The publication features articles on university programs and events that are open to the community, contributions to the local community, ground breaking teaching and research, and more.
The most recent edition of Community Connections can be found in the
March 18 issue of Town Topics.
Read Community Connections online
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Mercer County Community College & Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton announce Inaugural Trenton Arts Fellow
Mercer County Community College (MCCC) and the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University announce selection of the inaugural Trenton Arts Fellow for 2026-27, Bentrice “Beni” Jusu, as well as finalist April Cooper. The new program is a collaboration between the two institutions to support artists in Trenton modeled on the Lewis Center’s other artist fellowship programs.
Read on arts.princeton.edu
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How a Fleet Marine Force Corpsman Became a Princeton University Student and Future Doctor
Luke Hixson ’25 is driven to serve. Luke’s journey began as a medic in the Marine Corps and continues today as a student at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Princeton helped him bridge the gap in between, preparing him for the rigors of medical training — at no cost to him.
Watch on YouTube
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Eyes and Ears on Site: OCP Construction Managers Keep Projects Moving
One morning in 2019, a team of Facilities carpenters, engineers, and field managers maneuvered a pair of stick-built air handler mockups towards an arched doorway to McCosh 50.
One fit. The other mockup did not.
The on-site test allowed the team to order the correct model for the renovation, preserving an important certification for the unit and avoiding an expensive, time-intensive scenario where the unit would have to be taken apart and reassembled in place.
This is one example of how the Office of Capital Project (OCP) Construction Managers problem solve in the field to keep projects moving forward.
| | America 250: Princeton Celebrates | | |
Now is the Time: Artists Go to Work
Toni Morrison’s Atelier and the Importance of Artistic Convening and Collaboration
Now is the Time: Artists Go to Work — Toni Morrison’s Atelier and the Importance of Artistic Convening and Collaboration features a panel discussion inspired by the timestamp of America’s 250th anniversary and Morrison’s belief that in challenging times artists must go to work. The panel will grapple with the urgent challenge Morrison articulated so presciently years ago: that independence, proclaimed in 1776, can only survive through interdependence—the ongoing collaborative work of relation, care, and creation. Part of an ongoing initiative cosponsored by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Princeton Atelier, The Collaboratorium for Radical Aesthetics, The Toni Morrison Foundation, and the Park Avenue Armory.
Reserve free tickets on tickets.princeton.edu.
Friday, March 27
4:30 PM
Wallace Theater at Lewis Arts Complex
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Join the James Madison Program a panel on Professor Cass Sunstein's new book On Liberalism: In Defense of Freedom. Moderated by Professor Robert P. George, Professor Sunstein will be in conversation with Professor Sherif Girgis of Notre Dame Law School.
Free and open to the public.
Friday, March 20
3:00 PM
Robertson Hall, Arthur Lewis Auditorium
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Experience one of the world’s greatest violists as a pedagogue as she works with talented Princeton University student violists in this masterclass.
Free and open to the public.
Friday, March 20
4:00 PM
Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall
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2026 Robert Fagles Memorial Lecture:
“For and Against a United Ireland”
Co-authors Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride debate the points in their recent book, For and Against a United Ireland, as the annual Robert Fagles Memorial Lecture. Part of the 2025-26 Fund for Irish Studies Series. The Fund for Irish Studies Series is co-chaired by Jane Cox, Director of Princeton’s Program in Theater & Music Theater, and Robert Spoo, Princeton’s Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters.
Reserve free tickets on tickets.princeton.edu.
Friday, March 20
4:30 PM
James Stewart Theater at 185 Nassau Street
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As part of this year’s ‘Glee Club Presents’ series, the Grammy-winning vocal quartet jazz vocal quartet SÄJE performs in collaboration with the students of the Glee Club.
Purchase tickets on tickets.princeton.edu.
Saturday, March 21
7:30 PM
Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall
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Join Princeton alumnus Ryan T. Anderson, '04, as he makes the case for social conservatism in contemporary law and politics. From the right to life of the unborn to the centrality of the marital family, from our embodiment as male and female to recent debates over religious liberty, Anderson will make the case for socially conservative positions.
Free and open to the public.
Monday, March 23
5:00 PM
Bowen Hall, Room 222
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AI x Journalism: Transforming the News
The Humanities Council’s Program in Journalism and the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) presents “AI x Journalism: Transforming the News.”
AI is already reshaping newsgathering, audience engagement, and the dissemination of fact-based journalism. In this panel discussion, experts will examine how AI is impacting every aspect of the field – from national outlets to small local newsrooms – and its effect on data analysis, gathering and checking facts, source security, and more.
Panelists include Emmy Award-winning reporter and CITP fellow Hilke Schellmann; Madelyne Xiao, CITP graduate student and former fact-checker for The New Yorker; Dylan Freedman, machine-learning engineer and journalist at The New York Times; and Anjanette Delgado, Group Manager Editor for the Hearst Connecticut Media Group.
“Nothing could be more critical at this time than understanding the massive disruption and influence of AI on journalism,” said Eliza Griswold, director of the program and professor of the practice. “Yet alongside cautionary tales, there are tools here for journalists that our students are more than capable of learning and advancing.”
Griswold will moderate the panel, which is presented in collaboration with the Princeton Humanities Initiative.
Thursday, March 26
4:30 PM
Chancellor Green Rotunda
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Althea Ward Clark W’21 Reading by Kaitlyn Greenidge & Hisham Matar
Award-winning novelist Kaitlyn Greenidge, a 2019-20 Princeton University Hodder Fellow, and 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Hisham Matar 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. This event is cosponsored by the Lewis Center for the Arts and Labyrinth Books.
Tuesday, March 24
6:00 PM
Labyrinth Books, 122 Nassau Street
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Princeton Three Minute Thesis Showcase
As part of our 125th Anniversary celebration, the Princeton Graduate School is proud to introduce Princeton's first Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition, a globally recognized platform for graduate students to showcase their research and strengthen their ability to communicate with general audiences.
Experience the final presentations from ten graduate students who advanced through last month’s preliminary rounds to become Princeton’s first 3MT finalists. These talks will be evaluated live by our judging panel, with awards presented at the conclusion of the event.
The event is part of Princeton Graduate School's 125 Anniversary celebration.
Free registration required on on gradschool.princeton.edu.
Wednesday, March 25
3:00 to 6:00 PM
Frist Campus Center Multipurpose Room
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Princeton University Public Lecture
Percival Everett
Percival Everett's most recent novel James (2024) was longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize and chosen for the Booker Prize shortlist. James won the Kirkus Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award for Fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Percival Everett's other novels include Erasure (2001), The Trees (2020), and Dr. No (2022). He is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.
Free and open to the public.
Wednesday, March 25
5:00 PM
McCosh Hall, Room 50
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Book Talk
The New Conservatives: Restoring America’s Commitment to Family, Community, and Industry
Join Chris Griswold as he presents The New Conservatives (2025), a collection of American Compass' most influential writing on domestic, industrial, and economic policy. Chris Griswold is the Policy Director at American Compass. Previously a senior advisor to then Senator Marco Rubio, he earned his Master of Divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary. Hosted by the Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies and co-sponsored by the James Madison Program.
Free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the talk.
Thursday, March 26
4:30 PM
Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building, Room 399.
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Panel Discussion
Toshiko Takaezu: Dialogues in Clay
Toshiko Takaezu’s former students share perspectives on the artist’s enduring influence.
Artists Don Fletcher, G. Daniel Massad, and Martha Russo, all former students of Toshiko Takaezu while at Princeton University, reflect on the lessons, rigor, and generosity that defined her studio.
Moderated by Samuel Shapiro, curatorial research assistant and doctoral candidate in the Department of Art & Archaeology; introduced by Chief Curator Juliana Dweck.
Thursday, March 26
5:30 PM
Princeton University Art Museum
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Princeton Opera Company
Gianni Schicchi
The Princeton Opera Company is proud to present Giacomo Puccini’s GIANNI SCHICCHI.
Gianni Schicchi is a fast-paced comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini, based on an episode from The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.
When the wealthy Buoso Donati dies in Florence, his greedy relatives gather to divide his fortune—only to discover that he has left everything to a monastery. In desperation, they turn to the plumber Gianni Schicchi for help. Schicchi devises a daring scheme: he will impersonate the dead man and dictate a new will. But as the family anxiously waits for their share, Schicchi begins distributing the inheritance in a way no one expects.
Packed with witty twists, rapid-fire ensembles, and the beloved aria “O mio babbino caro,” Gianni Schicchi is a sharp, mischievous comedy about greed, deception, and the sweet satisfaction of a clever trick well played.
Purchase tickets on tickets.princeton.edu.
March 27 and 28
7:30 PM
Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall
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Willem de Kooning:
The Breakthrough Years, 1945–50
Willem de Kooning: The Breakthrough Years, 1945–50 traces the development of de Kooning’s approach to painting in the period when he cemented his position as a leader of the American avant-garde.
Anchored by works from de Kooning’s first solo exhibition, held in 1948, including Black Friday—a highlight in Princeton’s collections—as well as paintings from more than a dozen museums and private collections, The Breakthrough Years is the first exhibition to focus on the enormously generative and creative period that surrounded de Kooning’s full-scale debut in the New York art world. During this time, de Kooning refined the exchange in his work between figuration and abstraction through experimentation, resulting in compositions that are among his most celebrated. The Breakthrough Years offers a rare opportunity to study a defining moment in the career of an artist who fundamentally redefined painting in the twentieth century to become one of modernism’s foundational representatives.
Free and open to the public.
On display March 15 through July 26
Princeton University Art Museum
View gallery hours on artmuseum.princeton.edu
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Art for Families
Solstice Vessels
Saturdays are for young makers in the Creativity Labs! Celebrate the spring solstice by creating your own solstice vessel.
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.
Artist Toshiko Takaezu had a deeply rooted respect for the wonders of the natural world and often found inspiration in nature. Celebrate the spring solstice by exploring the work of Takaezu and creating your own solstice vessel. We provide the materials, you bring the creativity!
Saturday, March 21
10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Princeton University Art Museum
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Science Outreach offers Science Saturday programs in local libraries. In collaboration with the Trenton Public Library, the Ewing Library, the Lawrence Library, and the Princeton Public Library systems, Science Outreach hosts Science Outreach Saturdays for students in grades 2 - 8.
Science Saturdays take place monthly. Students will engage in different hands-on engaging science activities each month.
Registration is required. Register on mcl.org.
Saturday, March 21
3:00 PM
Trenton Free Public Library, 120 Academy Street
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Images
Trenton Arts Fellow - Photo by Rachel Fawn Alban
Toni Morrison - Photo credit: Lewis Center for the Arts Archives
Willem de Kooning - Willem de Kooning (1904–1997; born Rotterdam, Netherlands; died East Hampton, NY; active New York, NY), Black Friday, 1948. Enamel and oil over paper collage on fiberboard in painted wood frame; 125 × 99 cm, 128.3 × 102.2 × 7.3 cm (frame). Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of H. Gates Lloyd, Class of 1923, and Mrs. Lloyd in honor of the Class of 1923 (y1976-44) © 2026 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Art for Families - Toshiko Takaezu, Sunrise Egg, ca. 2003–04, refired 2006. Gift of the artist. © Toshiko Takaezu. Photo: Bruce White
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