News & Media
Below is a collection of news articles, blog posts, and media featuring The Poetry of Science.
The Poetry of Science is a multimodal project from co-creators Joshua Sariñana, PhD and Linsey Jayne, MFA. Using a grant from the Cambridge Arts Council, they brought together artists, poets, and people of color in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The focus of the project was to normalize people of color in these spaces, explore their experiences, and to inspire the next generation of people of color in STEM. - February 23, 2022
Black History Month Panel by The Peoples’s heART
The connections between art and technology, however, are not always obvious — a gap that the Poetry of Science public art installation in Cambridge, MA, set out to fill. A collaboration between the Cambridge Arts Council and the People’s heArt Project, the project paired scientists of colour at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with local poets of colour. The aim: to create “positive associations between people of color, the arts, the sciences, how nature is perceived, and what it means to generate knowledge.” - December 8, 2021
Makinde Ogunnaike and Josh Sariñana talked about how they turn physics and neuroscience into art and poetry, and the intersection of physics and religious faith. Ogunnaike is a PhD candidate in physics at MIT, where he researches quantum systems and the new states of matter they can create. He also runs the Harvard-MIT chapter of the National Society of Black Physicists. Sariñana is a fine art photographer, a writer and neuroscience marketing professional. He’s also the director of “The Poetry of Science. - December 3, 2021
Senior MIT physics doctoral student Olumakinde “Makinde” Ogunnaike briefly traded his research for verse as a participant in The Poetry of Science, an initiative funded by the Cambridge Arts Council that pairs poets of color with scientists of color from MIT and other area schools to artistically express their scientific work through art and poetry. Ogunnaike and other area scientists were invited by Joshua Sariñana PhD ’11, who studied neuroscience with the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and who tapped into his photography and writing talents to co-produce the art exhibit. - November 16, 2021
“The Poetry of Science,” pairs photographs of notable scientists, including MIT students and researchers, with poems about their research areas of interest. Two MIT students in electrical engineering and computer science (EECS), Kathleen Esfahany and Suparnamaaya “Maaya” Prasad, were recently invited to participate in the program, which set a goal of increasing public awareness of women and people of color in science. - November 3, 2021
Now, Sariñana is colliding his fields of interest as director of The Poetry of Science, a public art installation with a social justice mission, currently on display at Mass General Hospital. Supported by the Cambridge Arts Council Art for Racial Justice Grant, the project represents a multimedia collaboration between local poets and scientists of color, intended to showcase their combined talents, highlight their positive contributions to the world, and enhance viewer understanding of science through art.- October 19, 2021
For Sariñana, who’s always seen science, communication, and the arts as intertwined, “The Poetry of Science” is a chance to demonstrate that to the public and perhaps inspire the next generation. “As a little kid, I didn’t have many models to look up to who were scientists of color,” he says. “There’s exceptional opportunity for science and art to work together to translate complex and seemingly out-of-reach ideas to the public, and this project is [one] way to do it.”
“One of the more beautiful surprises in this project was the way in which the poetry strategically shone light on the nuances of the researchers and scientists featured, much in the way that subtle physical clues—the laugh lines, the wrinkles, the smirks, the glint in their eye—can when you first meet someone,” says Ms. Covino-Deaso.
“Each poem is precisely crafted to show important, and often hidden aspects of each person’s life, motivations, and beliefs.” - October 7, 2021
Christian Loyo of the Grossman lab and Sheena Vasquez of the Drennan lab, both graduate students in the Department of Biology, were recently selected to participate in The Poetry of Science. The project, founded by Joshua Sariñana PhD ’11, aims to advance racial justice at the intersection of science and art by bringing together Cambridge, Massachusetts-affiliated poets and scientists of color to create poems about scientific research.
The Poetry of Science project, supported by the Cambridge Arts Council Art for Racial Justice Grant and directed by MIT alum Joshua Sariñana, profiles several MIT students, two of whom are students at the Media Lab: Huili Chen (research assistant in the Personal Robots group) and Shannon Johnson (research assistant in the Synthetic Neurobiology group).
Resultantly, I decided to apply to a city art grant focusing on racial justice with my collaborator, Linsey Jayne. I am a photographer and a neuroscientist and Linsey is a poet and editor. Our project, The Poetry of Science, provides an opportunity for people of color (POC) to amplify their voices and to be seen. Utilizing poetry and photography to validate the realities of POC, we aimed to counter the negative associations handed down by systemic racism by creating new and positive associations between POC, the arts, and the sciences.
JASON SAMAROO SELECTED FOR THE POETRY OF SCIENCE PROJECT - May 21, 2021
Poetry Meets Science at BBF’s Lit Crawl 2021 - May 12, 2021
Art project will pair poets and scientists of color, post and publish, but first it must find its poets - March 14, 2021
Cambridge artists awarded $5K to create art for racial justice - March 3, 2021
$45,000 In Art For Racial Justice Grants Announced By Cambridge Arts - February 10, 2021