CELEBRATE NATIONAL POETRY MONTH WITH A VISUAL AND SONIC POETRY EXPERIENCE CREATED BY BARBARIA MARIA AND THE JORDAN PLANETARIUM 

CELESTIAL EARTH: We Are Here … but when? is a multimedia immersion experience with projections of film and sound on the starlit dome of the Versant Power Astronomy Center and Jordan Planetarium. Created by Belfast conceptual artist Barbaria Maria and "piloted" by Shawn Laatsch. The one-hour show, which debuted as an art installation last September at the Belfast Free Library with the films and images projected on the walls and TV sets, and the low ceiling alit by six toy star projectors, has moved to the planetarium and promises to increase the experience astronomically. Pun intended!

 A collaborating poet who works in accessible media, Maria made her short films for previous events, including the Belfast Poetry Festival (2012’s When She Became a Buffalo and 2015’s Since We Can’t Go Back, working with the paintings of Eric Lappenen), mixing and deconstructing images in PowerPoint with her wife and producer Kathryn Robyn, and turning news stories into art with poetry in iMovie (2016’s Convergence).

 But it’s the 19-minute soundscape of the artist’s 2024 long-form poem, "Celestial Earth," that is the central and unifying piece for this show. Produced in partnership with sound engineer Lincoln Clapp and Robyn, and transmitted under the magnificence of the universe as piloted by Planetarium director Shawn Laatsch, audiences will be immersed in the sounds of the earth and the poet’s spellbinding voice. This show is meant to provide a direct transformative experience to gather and strengthen spirit, stimulate creative inspiration, and engage and encourage the long view, where hope can find a way. And boy, does it deliver.