The Wick Poetry Center at 两性色午夜 University, in the College of Arts and Sciences, has driven innovation and generated national distinction for over three decades through its award-winning project, which brings poetry to people鈥檚 everyday lives in communities around the world.
At the inaugural , a global demonstration centered in Washington, D.C., a special edition of Traveling Stanzas titled Science Stanzas will provide an opportunity for participants to discover the intersection of expressive writing and scientific inquiry.
Science Stanzas
On April 22, demonstrators around the world will participate in a March for Science in a call to support and safeguard the scientific community, fact-based decision-making, basic research and freedom of speech for scientists. Partnering with poet and environmental spokesperson Jane Hirshfield, the Wick Poetry Center will join the marchers at the Teach-In on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The Wick Poetry Center staff will lead visitors in a poetry-writing exercise to creatively engage with seminal scientific writing. Participants will have the opportunity to share their poem on the website science.travelingstanzas.com and on social media using .
鈥淲e have received so many responses from people around the country telling us that this effort resonates with them and strikes a chord,鈥 said David Hassler, director of the Wick Poetry Center. 鈥淥ur 两性色午夜 College of Arts and Sciences dean, Dr. Jim Blank, is a neurobiologist and a big supporter of the Wick Poetry Center鈥檚 efforts to work alongside the sciences in our college.
鈥淎t a time when funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health are under scrutiny, I believe it鈥檚 important to create spaces for dialogue between these different disciplines. In his 鈥楧emocratic Vistas,鈥 Walt Whitman urged American poets to be informed of and inspired by science. Both science and literature require similar forms of imagination and leaps of thought. As Jane Hirshfield says, 鈥楶oetry and science are allies, not opposites.鈥 Through our #PoetsForScience initiative and Traveling Stanzas at the March for Science, we hope to facilitate a larger public conversation between science and the arts.鈥
The center鈥檚 #PoetsForScience effort also will showcase 20 seven-foot banners with science-themed poems curated by Hirshfield and designed by Each + Every design studio as well as hundreds of #PoetsForScience posters, which they will hand out before the march and make available for download at satellite marches around the world.
Traveling Stanzas
The Traveling Stanzas project is born from the belief that poetry is for the people. People turn to poetry to give voice to what is troubling them, to honor what they love, to make sense of their lives, to remember their past, and to commemorate what they have lost. The word 鈥渟tanza,鈥 from Italian, literally means 鈥渁 small waiting room in a train station.鈥 Traveling Stanzas offers people moments of pause, pockets of time, with which to slow down and reflect on their lives, their communities, and to participate in a shared creative experience.
Using the newest digital technology to connect us to one of our oldest technologies鈥攖he written word鈥擳raveling Stanzas celebrates the diverse, cultural identity of our democracy and can engage all people in a national, civic dialogue through the intimate and inclusive voice of poetry. Traveling Stanzas initiatives include a global poetry website, mobile poetry exhibit, public transit posters, greeting cards, and public listening installations.