Go see plays and films both on and off campus this month!

Happening in the World: The city of Machala, Ecuador, was once a booming economic hub, but it is now broken by drug violence and unemployment. Residents are currently split between two candidates for the runoff election on Sunday. The two candidates included President Daniel Naboa and Luisa González. President Naboa positions himself as tough on crime and the best prepared candidate to lead Ecuador onto the global stage. González is defined by her controversial association with former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, who was convicted on corruption charges and accused of having authoritarian tendencies. Noboa narrowly edged out González in the first round but has not surpassed 50 percent of the vote to avoid a second round, and the polls show Sunday’s election will be close. (NYT)

Happening in the US: A group of Jewish organizations and congregations are coming to the defense of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Muslim graduate student at Tufts, who faces deportation after she helped to write an essay that is critical of Israel. They filed a brief in federal court in Burlington, Vermont, objecting to the government’s tactics to prevent antisemitism being used against Ozturk. The groups argued that she should be released from the Louisiana immigration detention center where she has been held for over two weeks after she was surrounded and arrested on a street near her home by masked immigration agents. Ozturk is not the only student who has faced government retaliation. According to the Association of International Educators, there have been reports of almost 1,000 international students and scholars at universities across the country who have lost their legal status since mid-March. (NYT)

Happening in NYC: Off-Broadway shows are on the rise, and here are some notable shows to see this month! The first is All the World’s a Stage, which is set in the 1990s in a conservative small town, where a gay high school teacher helps a student to prepare for a statewide theater competition. The next is Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, a play headlined by Lonne Elder III, who plays a widowed barber and former vaudevillian in 1950s Harlem. A third one to go see is The Ungodly. The play follows Matthew Hopkins, a witch hunter, and Hopkins’s sister, a skeptic amid the religious panic her brother preaches. To learn about more shows, click here. (NYT)

Happening in Our Community: On Monday, April 14, in Schermerhorn Hall, you can go see the film Where Zebus Speak French, written by Nantenaina Lova and Eva Lova-Bely. The film tells a story about corruption, dispossession, and the resistance of oral culture amidst the rice fields of highland Madagascar. The showing will begin at 6:30 pm and run for a total of 103 minutes. To watch the trailer, click here. To learn more information and register, click here.

Image via Wikimedia Commons