The Universe in Verse — the annual celebration of science through poetry I host at Pioneer Works — returns with a very special edition: This year’s show, benefiting Pioneer Works’ endeavor to build New York’s first-ever public observatory, celebrates the 100th anniversary of Sir Arthur Eddington’s historic eclipse expedition to Africa, which confirmed relativity and catapulted Einstein into celebrity. “Dear Mother, joyous news today,” Einstein wrote upon receiving word of the results, which revolutionized our understanding of the universe and shaped the course of modern physics. The scientific triumph was also a heartening, humane moment—just after the close of World War I, a pacifist English Quaker, who had refused to be drafted in the war at the risk of being jailed for treason, and a German Jew united humanity under the same sky, under the deepest truths of the universe. An invitation to perspective in the largest sense.
Join us for an evening of poems and stories about eclipses, relativity, spacetime, and Einstein’s legacy, featuring readings by musicians David Byrne, Regina Spektor, Amanda Palmer, Emily Wells, and Josh Groban, astrophysicists Janna Levin and Natalie Batalha, poets Elizabeth Alexander, Diane Ackerman, and Marilyn Nelson, actor Natascha McElhone, comedian Chuck Nice, choreographer Bill T. Jones, On Being host Krista Tippett, with some thrilling surprises in wait.
After the show, the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York will be hosting telescopic stargazing in the spring-kissed garden outside.
Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
Doors: 6PM
Show: 7–9ish PM
Tickets $29. Please consider making an additional donation based on your financial ability and your willingness to help build a dome of possibility for future Eddingtons and Einsteins.
You can watch the recordings of the first two years, made possible by donations from readers, below:
Hello, <<Name>>! Here is something into which I poured my heart and soul each spring, celebrating three things so dear to me: science, poetry, and the human right to curiosity. This event is a monumental labor of love, with every single person involved donating their time and talent, and all proceeds benefiting the endeavor to build New York City's first-ever public observatory. If you're in NYC, please come. And if you aren't but have friends who are, please do forward it to them. It's going to be a magical evening, and I hope one that does some substantive and lasting good.
