Photo Spotlights

Dangerous Signs, a performance poetry group from the NTID Masquers Drama Club, has a unique blend of African-American, deaf and original poetry mixed with dance, music, mime and the spoken word.

RIT students participated in Mud Tug 2012, the annual all out tug-of-war tournament held behind Grace Watson Hall on Sept. 22. RIT unofficially broke the world record with 1,647 tuggers.

Al Biles, professor of interactive games and media, played his unique brand of technology-inspired music at the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival on Sept. 22.

RIT/NTID Dance Company performed AstroDance at the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival on Sept. 22. The dance was conceived and choreographed by Thomas Warfield, director of the RIT/NTID dance program.

Barnes & Noble @ RIT hosted a meet-and-greet with the RIT women’s hockey team on Sept. 22 to benefit RIT’s chapter of the Fight to Be Healed Foundation. The foundation offers support to pediatric cancer patients at Golisano Children’s Hospital.

“Spirits Within,” a collaboration among Eastman School of Music professor Stephen Kennedy, dancers from FuturPointe Dance Company and RIT professor Marla Schweppe’s 3-D Digital Design students, was performed during the Rochester Fringe Festival on Sept. 21.

RIT’s state-of-the-art “green” facility, Golisano Institute for Sustainability, will serve as a center for sustainability research, technology transfer, education and outreach and will provide a showcase for green construction and design.

The Little Theatre (240 East Ave.) is the home venue for RIT during the inaugural First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival Sept. 19-23. Theatre, film, dance, music and art are among the offerings by RIT students and faculty. Gallery r, Christ Church and The Little Theater will feature presentations. For a complete list of RIT performances, go to www.rit.edu/fringefest. For more on the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival, go to www.rochesterfringe.com.

RIT Provost Jeremy Haefner presented Ellen Dunlap, president of the American Antiquarian Society, with the 2012 Isaiah Thomas Award in Publishing during a ceremony Sept. 20 in Worcester, Mass. The award is given annually to a person or an organization for outstanding contributions to the industry. Currently celebrating the 200th anniversary of its founding by the patriot printer and publisher Isaiah Thomas himself, the American Antiquarian Society is dedicated to preserving the legacy and advancing the mission of its founder. Its vast and highly accessible collection of history, literature and cultural documents spans the life of America’s people from the colonial era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Thomas (in back) made an appearance at the event.

Isaiah Thomas himself made a surprise appearance at the 2012 Isaiah Thomas Awards honoring the American Antiquarian Society, a national research library that Thomas founded. He gave an impassioned history lesson on his life during the colonial period. He said: “It was in Nova Scotia that I first began fighting for the rights each American holds as inalienable. First I rallied against the Stamp Act and then later back in Boston for independency from Great Britain. My printing establishment was called the “sedition foundry.” In 1770, I began publishing a new newspaper for the middling class, entitled the Massachusetts Spy. It soon became the most widely read paper in all the colonies! In it I published the first eyewitness accounts of the battles of Lexington and Concord. I have always believed in a free and unfettered press. Should the liberty of the press be once destroyed, farewell the remainder of our invaluable rights and privileges!”

The Fall Community Service Fair took place on Sept. 19 in the Student Alumni Union lobby. Nonprofit agencies from the Rochester area provided students, faculty and staff with information on the types of services they provide and the volunteer opportunities available. Here, Emma Griffith, a fourth-year marketing student, learns about Foodlink from volunteer coordinator Tim Scott.

RIT students have partnered with residents in Rochester’s Marketview Heights neighborhood to create several gardens throughout the community. Through the University/Community Partnerships program in the College of Liberal Arts, RIT students educate neighborhood children about proper nutrition, where their food comes from, the benefits of growing their own food, and musical and artistic expression in the garden. In addition, all of the food cultivated in the garden is free to community residents. Here, RIT alumnus Cameron Hebda ’12 takes pride in educating youngsters about healthy eating. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=49344.