“A portable cosmos of gladness at the chance-miracle of aliveness: all of us, suspended here in this sliver of spacetime, with our stories and our poems and each other.”
The Universe in Verse
The Universe in Verse
The Universe in Verse is a celebration of the wonder of reality, as its luminous and brilliant creator Maria Popova says, “through stories of science winged with poetry.” It began as an extraordinary annual event in 2017. In this interlude between that world of gatherings and this, On Being is beyond delighted to partner with Maria to reimagine the Universe in Verse in a new form. Beginning in winter 2022, and released over the course of nine weeks, nine poems will be brought to life through storytellers and animators, performers and musicians — and presented and woven into a whole by Maria. Newly released chapters will be shared weekly in the Pause newsletter.
Details
Stories about relativity and the evolution of flowers, about entropy and the Hubble Space Telescope, about dark matter and octopus intelligence.
Illustrated with poems new and old, by Emily Dickinson and Richard Feynman, by W.H. Auden and Tracy K. Smith, by Marilyn Nelson and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Performed by a human constellation including Patti Smith, Joan As Police Woman, Yo-Yo Ma, Sophie Blackall, Amanda Palmer, Maira Kalman, Toshi Reagon, David Byrne, Daniel Bruson, Zöe Keating, Janna Levin, Garth Stevenson, Sy Montgomery, Jherek Bischoff, Edwina White, Ohara Hale, Tom McRae, Topu Lyo, Gautam Srikishan, Lottie Kingslake, Kelli Anderson, and Liang-Hsin Huang.
Chapter 9: Atoms with Consciousness
Words by Richard Feynman
Reading and music by Yo-Yo Ma
Animation by Kelli Anderson
Read Chapter 9: Atoms with Consciousness: Yo-Yo Ma Performs Richard Feynman’s Ode to the Wonder of Life at The Marginalian
Chapter 8: Octopus Empire – An Animated Poem
Poem by Marilyn Nelson
Reading by Sy Montgomery
Music by Topu Lyo
Art by Edwina White
Animation by James Dunlap
Read Chapter 8: Octopus Empire: An Animated Poem at The Marginalian
Chapter 7: The More Loving One
Poem by W.H. Auden
Reading by Janna Levin
Art and animation by Liang-Hsin Huang
Music by Garth Stevenson
Read Chapter 7: The More Loving One: The Science of Entropy and the Art of Alternate Endings at The Marginalian.org
Chapter 6: Dirge Without Music
Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Performed by Amanda Palmer
Art + Animation by Sophie Blackall
Music by Tom McRae
Read Chapter 6: Dirge Without Music: Emmy Noether, Symmetry, and the Conservation of Energy at The Marginalian
Chapter 5: Singularity
Poem by Marissa Davis
Performed by Toshi Reagon
Film by Lottie Kingslake
Read Chapter 5: An animated ode to our primeval bond with nature and each other at The Marginalian
Chapter 4: Let There Always Be Light
Poem by Rebecca Elson
Reading by Patti Smith
Art and Animation by Ohara Hale
Music by Zoë Keating
Read Chapter 4: Dark matter, astronomer Vera Rubin, and the mystery of our mortal stardust at The Marginalian
Chapter 3: Achieving Perspective
Poem by Pattiann Rogers
Reading by David Byrne
Music by Jherek Bischoff
Art by Maira Kalman
Animation by Mariana López
Directed by SALT Project
Read Chapter 3: Trailblazing astronomer Maria Mitchell and the poetry of the cosmic perspective at The Marginalian
Chapter 2: My God, It’s Full of Stars
Poem by Tracy K. Smith
Art + Animation by Daniel Bruson
Music by Gautam Srikishan
with creative direction by Erin Colasacco
Read Chapter 2: Henrietta Leavitt, Edwin Hubble, and our human hunger to know the universe at The Marginalian
Chapter 1: Bloom
Poem by Emily Dickinson
Music by Joan As Police Woman
Art + Animation by Ohara Hale
Lettering by Debbie Millman
Read Chapter 1: The evolution of life and the birth of ecology at The Marginalian
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