Peter Kaufman will read from "Skull in the Ashes: Murder, a Gold Rush Manhunt, and the Birth of Circumstantial Evidence in America," a book recently published by the University of Iowa Press, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City.

The University of Iowa College of Engineering will hold the third annual Richard L. Valentine Distinguished Lecture from 3:30 to 4:20 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, in 40 Schaeffer Hall on the UI campus.

Martha Redbone's rich musical heritage and hunger for new ideas leads to a modern sound grounded in tradition. Her Club Hancher performances provide an intimate opportunity to experience her music. Martha Redbone's Club Hancher concerts are set for Thursday, Oct. 3, at 7 and 9:30 p.m. at The Mill.

Poets Chris Bolin, Nathan Hoks, and Roger Reeves will read from their work at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The reading also will be streamed live on the University of Iowa Writing University website.

Now through Dec. 8, the University of Iowa Museum of Art presents "New Forms: The Avant-Garde Meets the American Scene, 1934–1949," located in the Black Box Theater in the Iowa Memorial Union.

"A Troublesome Subject: The Art of Robert Arneson" is the subject of a lecture by Jonathan Fineberg Thursday, Sept. 26, at 7:30 p.m. in 240 Art Building West on the University of Iowa campus.

Dale Fisher will trace the evolution of pottery traditions of indigenous peoples of the American Southwest during a Wednesday, Sept. 25, lecture at the Old Capitol Museum. The talk is set for 7 p.m. in the Supreme Court Chamber.

Nolden Gentry came to the University of Iowa to play basketball, but stayed to become a lawyer and leader in the state’s largest city.

So how did you spend your summer? Numerous students and faculty in the UI Division of Performing Arts dotted the globe with their summer activities. Students gained valuable experience performing and working in music, theatre, and dance, while faculty taught at workshops, performed at festivals, and conducted research.

Monday will be a big day in the life of the new—and the old—Hancher facilities. Weather permitting, construction crews working on the new Hancher facility will initiate the project’s single-largest concrete pour around 6 a.m. Monday: 1,400 cubic feet in a single day, to be exact. And around 9 a.m., a wrecking ball will begin dismantling the original Hancher Auditorium.

The cloud computing technology company 3 Par was a money-loser for its first 11 years in business, but Dell and Hewlett-Packard still went to war over its acquisition in 2010, a bidding battle that more than tripled the firm’s stock price in a month.

Results from a survey administered by the UI College of Education's Iowa Testing Programs suggest that interest levels among Iowa students in science, technology, engineering, and math, collectively referred to as STEM, decline steadily between third grade and high school graduation.