Elements: Poetry in molecular motion
Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
We’re fancying a bit of geek chic later in the month as Art Meets Science at the 10th annual outing of Manchester Science Festival. Elements: Poetry in Molecular Motion promises ‘visual, audio and even olfactory stimuli’ when poet and meteorologist Rachel McCarthy performs works from her acclaimed poetry collection, Element. This, her debut, was awarded the Laureate’s Choice by Dame Carol Ann Duffy last year and led to the one-woman multimedia show Alphabet of Our Universe, flagged up by The Guardian as ‘one to watch’.
Rachel was Director of the Exeter Poetry Festival and founder of ExCite Poetry, the Devon arm of the UK Poetry Society. She is also a climate scientist, and has worked for the Met Office and has advised the likes of the Department of Energy and Climate Change on weather and climate matters including renewable energy. During the reading, regular chemistry demo dudes Dr Frank Mair of the University of Manchester and Dr Steven Rossington of the University of Salford will complement the poems with some extra special whizzes and bangs.
