Find other seasons of The Universe in Verse here.

On April 24, 2017, I joined forces with the Academy of American Poets and astrophysicist Janna Levin to host The Universe in Verse at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works — an evening of poetry celebrating great scientists and scientific discoveries, and a protest against the silencing of science and the defunding of the arts, with all proceeds benefiting the Academy of American Poets and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

To our astonishment and delight, this seemingly esoteric idea drew an ardent audience of 850 — our maximum capacity — who lined up around the block to hear readings by Amanda Palmer, Rosanne Cash, Janna Levin, Elizabeth Alexander, Diane Ackerman, Billy Hayes, Sarah Jones, Tracy K. Smith, Jad Abumrad of Radiolab, Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York, and myself.

We celebrated pillars of science like Marie Curie, Euclid, Caroline Herschel, Oliver Sacks, the Harvard Computers, neutrinos, and the number pi, and read treasures like Adrienne Rich’s ode to women in astronomy, Campbell McGrath’s tribute to Jane Goodall, and the magnificent feminist poem about science Neil Gaiman wrote especially for the occasion.

This magical evening, which ended in a standing ovation, was an immensely heartening project of collective goodwill — the show took me innumerable hours to put together and every single person involved, from the triple-Grammy-winning musician to the Pulitzer-winning poet to the camera crew, donated their time and talent so that we could lift hundreds of spirits and raise thousands of dollars for the perseverance of art and science.

After publishing some of the individual readings, the time has come to release the complete show, with hearty gratitude to Kickstarter Live and Kathryn Jones for the livestream and recording.

Prefacing each poem is my introduction of the reader, some curious facts about the scientist or discovery celebrated in the poem, and the reader’s brief reflection on her or his relationship to science and poetry. The poem playlist is below, with links to the individual poems where available — please enjoy:

1. “Planetarium” by Adrienne Rich, read by Janna Levin
2. “My God, It’s Full of Stars” by Tracy K. Smith, read by the poet herself
3. “Power” by Adrienne Rich, read by Rosanne Cash
4. “The Venus Hottentot” by Elizabeth Alexander, read by the poet herself
5. “Cosmic Gall” by John Updike from, read by Brandon Stanton
6. “We Are Listening” by Diane Ackerman, read by the poet herself
7. “On the Fifth Day” by Jane Hirshfield, read by Emily Levine
8. “For Oliver’s Birthday, 1997” by Steven Jay Gould, read by Billy Hayes
9. “Euclid Alone Has Looked” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, read by Sam Beam
10. “Jane Goodall (1961)” by Campbell McGrath, performed by Sarah Jones
11. “The Habits of Light” by Anna Leahy, read by Ann Hamilton
12. “Address: The Archaeans, One Cell Creatures” by Pattiann Rogers, read by Jad Abumrad
13. “Pi” by Wisława Szymborska, read by Maria Popova
14. “The Mushroom Hunters” by Neil Gaiman, read by Amanda Palmer

If you enjoyed this labor of love, please consider joining in the goodwill by supporting the Academy of American Poets and the Natural Resources Defense Council, as well as Pioneer Works who, like me, rely on patronage to continue doing what they do.