The Essentials

Among the materials Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor submitted to Congress recently is a speech she gave at the Cornell Law School in 2007.

During that visit, sponsored by the Latino Law Students Association, Sotomayor spoke about her experiences growing up in a South Bronx housing projects and as a Latina student at Princeton and Yale; the value of public service; and the importance of being a good writer.

“Writing remains a challenge for me even today,” she said then. “Everything I write goes through multiple drafts. I am not a natural writer. Writing is a challenge for many Latino professionals – we have to work hard at it and we have to work hard at securing mentors who will help us learn how to write better. I encourage you all, not just Latinos, to spend time improving your writing – it is the single most important skill you can develop to ensure your professional success.”

President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor in May to succeed the retiring Justice David H. Souter. Confirmation hearings are expected to begin in July.

Sinfonietta of Riverdale, a Bronx ensemble created by Mark Mandarano ‘87, will perform the New York premiere of “Divertimento,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and former Cornell Kappa Alpha Professor Karel Husa in a concert May 3 at 2:30 p.m. in the ballroom of the Riverdale Temple (4545 Independence Ave. at 246th Street) in the Bronx.

The concert will also feature acclaimed pianist Benjamin Hochman playing Bach and music for strings by Tchaikovsky. Check out the Sinfonietta Web site at http://sinfoniettanyc.org/

In celebration of Gaypril, the Cornell Library has collected some new resources on transgender studies. The growing collection encompasses new and old items, from a 1922 autobiography of one man’s career as a female impersonator in New York’s underworld to a 2006 documentary about an intersex activist and fluid ideas about gender. Other new items include transvestite novellas, rare books in French and German and historic brochures that offer imagery for transsexuals.

The new materials also support the recently renamed Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies Program with a new focus on transgender studies.

Check out the library’s extensive Human Sexuality Collection in the Department of Rare and Manuscript Collections, and find it online at http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/HSC/.