BUNNELL STREET ARTS CENTER and STORYKNIFE WRITER’S RETREAT

present Alan Lightman and Maria Popova in Conversation

“Do Art and Science Represent Opposite Truths?” Join us for a live discussion with Alan Lightman and Maria Popova about subjective versus objective realities at The Porcupine Theater on Wednesday, June 4th at 7pm. This event is co-sponsored by the Bunnell Street Arts Center and Storyknife Writer’s Retreat, tickets available at The Porcupine Theater. 

Alan Lightman is a physicist, novelist and MIT’s first pressor with dual appointments in science and humanities. Maria Popova is an essayist, poet, cultural critic and author of the blog, The Marginalian. Admission is $25 general; $20 discounted, proceeds support both sponsoring organizations. Beer and wine will also be available for purchase.

Alan Paige Lightman is an American physicist, writer, and social entrepreneur. He has served on the faculties of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is currently a professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT. Lightman was one of the first persons at MIT to hold a joint faculty position in both the sciences and the humanities. His thinking and writing explore the intersection of the sciences and humanities. Lightman is the author of the international bestseller Einstein’s Dreams. and his novel The Diagnosis was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the founder of Harpswell, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance a new generation of women leaders in Southeast Asia. Lightman hosts the public-television series Searching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science. He has received six honorary doctoral degrees.

Maria Popova is a Bulgarian-born, American-based essayist, book author, poet, and writer of literary and arts commentary and cultural criticism that has found wide appeal both for her writing and for the visual stylistics that accompany it. In 2006, she started the blog Brain Pickings, an online publication that she has fought to maintain advertisement-free. The blog, renamed to The Marginalian upon its 15th birthday in 2021, features her writing on books, the arts, philosophy, culture, and other subjects. In addition to her writing and related speaking engagements, she has served as an MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow, as the editorial director at the higher education social network Lore, and has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Wired UK, and other publications. Since 2010, she has resided in Brooklyn, New York. She is the creator of “The Universe in Verse”, a large-scale annual celebration of science and the natural world through poetry.

Beer and Wine sales for the evening’s event go directly to Bunnell Street Art Center and Storyknife Writer’s Retreat

Those under 21 who wish to attend may do so if accompanied by a parent or guardian.