The Astronomy of Walt Whitman: A Universe in Verse

Produced a pop-up edition of Universe in Verse on Governors Island — a Walt Whitman bicentennial celebration curated by Maria Popova, writer and creator of The Marginalian.

With the Pioneer Works team, led by the vision of Maria Popova, we celebrated Walt Whitman's bicentennial through poetry with musical moments. Housed inside The May Room — a deconsecrated chapel transformed by renowned visual artist Shantell Martin — the afternoon featured astrophysicist and author Janna Levin, poet and performer Sarah Kay, musician and composer Meshell Ndegeocello, poet Diane Ackerman, Humans of New York creator Brandon Stanton, author Nicole Krauss, and musician Morley — all donating their time toward Pioneer Works' observatory-building endeavor.

Producing the event came with its own poetry: a ferry-only island, an intimate chapel that held a fraction of the crowd that arrived, no electricity or green room, and a high-profile cast to shepherd on and off the water.

Before and after, I organized complementary pop-up activations at the nearby Pioneer Works house, including telescopic solar viewing, a seedball making station, daguerreotype portraits, and commemorative patches by artist Andrea Lauer.