File 025514
Email Chain About Poetry and Science Educational Initiative (File 025514)
Email correspondence between Lisa New and Jeffrey Epstein discussing a proposal for an educational course combining poetry study with science, featuring prominent academics and filmed content.
Summary
Lisa New, a Harvard professor, emails Jeffrey Epstein about funding a course called "Poetry in America for Teachers II: The Poetry of Earth, Sea, and Sky" that combines poetry with science and environmental education. The proposal seeks $500,000 to launch the initiative in January. The course would feature filmed sessions with renowned scholars including Richard Dawkins, Walter Isaacson, Al Gore, and Lawrence Summers, along with archival imagery and footage from locations worldwide. New indicates interest in discussing the project in person and mentions exploring the proposal with the Dean of Education School.
From: Lisa NewSent: 12/2/2014 7:15:11 PMTo: Jeffrey Epstein [jeeyacation@gmail.com]Subject: Re: poetry and scienceImportance: Highokay. you let me know when you can talk.And I hadn't added to this list neuroscience--where Emily Dickinson has it nailed-- and maybe this would be theright poem for your group. Notice how many metaphors are operating simultaneously hereThe Brain, within its GrooveRuns evenly--and true--But let a Splinter swerve--'Twere easier for You--To put a Current back--When Floods have slit the Hills--And scooped a Turnpike for Themselves--And trodden out the Mills--I get to New York Thursday am or perhaps tomorrow night...haven't decided quite yet which. Alwaysprefer face to face if you have timelisaOn Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 1:29 PM, Lisa New <Dear Jeffrey,wrote:Apropos of our conversation of a few minutes ago, This proposal went to someone I thought wasinterested in the environment and science but who seems, in fact, far more interested in supporting TVon a broad range of topics.500,000 would fund this initiative as the second HGSE course (after Poetry of the City) and could beginimmediately, Jan 1.. I'd be thrilled to include other scientists you name, perhaps taping the group in asession on metaphor at the edges of fields.INote that taped sessions already include economics, marine biology, astronomy, evolutionary biology,zoology, physics and computer science. Richard Dawkins, Walter Isaacson, David Mossberg and DavidHOUSE OVERSIGHT 025514Malan have all said yes to tapings. Footage for all the others is already shot and ready for postproduction.I am having a drink with Dean of Ed School today and can explore this with him among other topicsLisaPoetry in America for Teachers II: The Poetry of Earth, Sea, and SkyCombining study of poetry with study of science, environment and the visual arts. Materials includehundreds archival images and live footage shot inCape Cod, Nantucket, Vermont, New York, Connecticut, Jamaica, Aspen, California, Papua New Guineaincluding oceans, ponds, marshes, birds, fish mountains, coral reefs, forests as well in some major collections(HMNH etc)with author Michael Pollan on Joel Barlow (and colonial agriculture)with economist Lawrence Summers on Oliver Wendell Holmes, (and technology and "one hoss shay"depreciation)with Harvard students at the Nantucket Whaling Museum and with , John Steele, editor of the sciencemagazine, Nautlilus, on Lowell and Melvillewith Vice President Al Gore on Ralph Waldo Emerson ,and, with eco-critic Lawrence Buell (with footagetaped on the Concord River as well as in Harvard's Houghton Rare Book Library )with a dozen Harvard students and Boston area school teachers on Emily Dickinson's "skies" (shot at EmilyDickinson's home in Amherst Massachusetts) and with ED 's original mss. at Harvard Universitywith Jane Pickering In Harvard's Museum of Natural History on Marianne Moore, zoology and sciencemuseumswith Martin Espada and other New Yorkers (footage shot on the East River) on Whitman and urbangreenspace and with Susan Howe on Stevens and parksHOUSE OVERSIGHT 025515with Richard Dawkins on Frost, evolution and probability and with Jay Parini, Frost biographer, in Frost'scabin on "The Road not Taken".with Director of the College Board (and writer of the Common Core Standards) , David Coleman on RobertFrost's "Birches" (filmed in a birch grove)with Peter Galison on Einstein and Modernism (taped in the Harvard Scientific Instruments collection in theHarvard Science Center) and with author Walter Isaacson on Einstein and Modernism (Fogg Museum)with Ray Dalio on Marianne Moore( in Rajah Ampat with Conservation International); and with JanePickering, Head of the Harvard Natural History Museum, ( filmed in the Harvard Museum of Natural History)with Stefan Weiss, Walt Mossberg and David Malan on coding, computer language and L-A-N-G-U-A-G-EpoetryElisa NewPowell M. Cabot Professor of American LiteratureHarvard University148 Barker Center12 Quincy StreetCambridge, MA02138Elisa NewPowell M. Cabot Professor of American LiteratureHarvard University148 Barker Center12 Quincy StreetCambridge, MA02138HOUSE OVERSIGHT 025516