Icarus at the World Science Festival

Brian Greene, one of the founders of the World Science Festival, wrote a story called "Icarus at the Edge of Time", which is a retelling of the Icarus myth, in which Icarus is a boy who travels too close to a black hole to escape the effects of gravitational force on time, and is thrust 10,000 years into the future. In aid of their mission to get kids to engage with science, the WSF made free educator tickets available to teachers and schoolchildren, and homeschoolers! Brian Greene explained the science to the audience before the show. There was also an amazing teacher's guide that explained the science behind the movie, which Mikro and I went through at home in advance.





Our homeschool group participated, and we were lucky enough to see the show, which combines a computer animated film with a live orchestra and narrator. Levar Burton narrated. The setting was the incredible United Palace Theater on 175th Street and Broadway. It is incredibly ornate and dripping with motifs from India. I'm really glad this architectural treasure survived! We had a great time, and lingered after the show to take some photos of the theater after the house lights came up. Mikro and Kev were in the lobby waiting for me to come down from the ladies room when they saw Levar Burton being interviewed by the press. They were standing in the background listening when Levar said to the interviewer that he would rather be talking to "kids like this", and shook Mikro's hand and had a conversation with him about science! My kid has this amazing luck! He made sure to tell Mr. Burton how much he enjoyed Reading Rainbow.