What not to miss on campus this week

Donald Trump’s Wednesday visit may be grabbing all the local headlines, but his isn’t the only event worth noting this week.

The second to last week of class doesn’t usually garner the same amount of  excitement as the last, but it’s hard not to get excited, as this week offers, among other events, an Academy Award-winning film screening and a guest lecture by Michael Sam, the first openly gay NFL player — all free to students. Check out our list of the most noteworthy events happening on campus this week.

Guneeta Singh Bhalla and the 1947 Partition Archive

Where: William Pitt Union Lower Lounge

When: Today, 8:30 p.m.

Cost: Free to all Pitt students

What: The South Asian Student Association and Pakistani Student Association are putting on a joint event that brings eyewitness stories from the 1947 partition. The partition, in which the British Empire broke up to form India and Pakistan, is known for being the largest mass migration in history, which displaced more than 15 million people and took 1 to 2 million lives.

The 1947 Partition Archive is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is preserving the partition’s oral histories through recorded interviews. Guneeta Singh Bhalla, the archive’s founder and a California physicist, will speak in addition to presenting select archive stories.

Michael Sam lecture and The Pitt LGBTQIA+ Experience: Past, Present and Future

When: Today, 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Where: William Pitt Union Assembly Room

Cost: Free to general public, but RSVP required on Pitt Alumni Association website

What: The Rainbow Alliance is presenting a panel discussion on Pitt’s LGBTQ+ climate on campus, featuring current student, alumni, faculty and University leader speakers. The panel will share their personal experiences and discuss Pitt’s efforts to accommodate its LGBTQ+ members in the past, present and future.

Michael Sam, the first openly gay NFL player, will follow the panel with a lecture.

“The Invisible War” screening and panel discussion

When: Wednesday, April 13, 4 to 7 p.m.

Where: Nordy’s Place in the William Pitt Union

Cost: Free

What: The University is screening Academy Award nominee, “The Invisible War,” which documents the epidemic of sexual violence within the U.S. military. The screening is part of the University’s Sexual Assault Awareness Week, which runs until Friday, April 15.

Italian Film Festival

When: Thursday, April 14, to Saturday, April 16, all movies start at 7 p.m.

Where: Frick Fine Arts Auditorium

What: The Italian Film Festival is screening one Italian movie, with English subtitles, per day in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium. Thursday’s offering is “Palio,” a documentary that examines the oldest horse race in the world, the Palio, which takes place in the city of Siena, Italy, twice per year.

On Friday, catch “Another South,” the story of a Sicilian nurse serving a humanitarian mission in Iraq during the second Gulf War, who ends up discovering just as much about herself as the foreign Iraq.

Saturday’s finale, “I, Harlequin,” follows Paolo Milesi, an actor forced to tend to his ailing father, himself an actor and Harlequin performer, while rehearsing for one final play in Italy’s masked Commedia dell’arte. 

Pitches and Tones present Petals and Gnomes: a free a cappella concert

When: Friday, April 15, 8:30 p.m.

Where: G24 Cathedral of Learning

What: Pitt a cappella group Pitches and Tones will be joined by Miami University of Ohio’s Open Fifth group for a free a cappella concert. Its flowery spring theme is delightfully titled “Petals and Gnomes,” and will feature a raffle after both groups’ performances. All proceeds go to Pitt Science Outreach Student Club.