Poetry+Science: Session 3

The Poetry of Science aims to increase the representation of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian & Pacific Islander, and People of Color’s (POCs) experiences in the fields of poetry and the sciences. The project's goal is to counter the negative associations handed down by systemic racism by creating new and positive associations between POC, the arts, the sciences. Cambridge-affiliated poets have collaborated with local scientists of color to create a poem about their inspiration as scientists and their field of study. Poems and associated portraits of the scientists will be printed and publicly installed. The Poetry of Science gives poets the opportunity to publish new work, and offer the scientists an avenue to understand their work in a new language, bridging the gap between the sciences and the humanities—an analogous gesture in linking and strengthening distinct communities of color.

Charles Coe is the author of three books of poetry: All Sins Forgiven: Poems for my Parents; Picnic on the Moon; and Memento Mori, all published by Leapfrog Press. He is also author of Spin Cycles, a novella published by Gemma Media. Coe was selected as a Boston Literary Light by the Associates of the Boston Public Library and is a former artist fellow at the St. Botolph Club in Boston. A short film by filmmaker Roberto Mighty, “Peach Pie,” was based on his poem, “Fortress” and has been shown at film festivals nationwide. Another short film, “Charles Coe: Man of Letters,” also by Roberto Mighty, was named “Outstanding Documentary Short” at the 2020 Roxbury Film Festival.

Coe was a 2017 artist-in-residence for the city of Boston, where he created an oral history project focused on residents of Mission Hill. He is poetry editor of Multiplicity, an online literary journal published by Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Mass., and associate editor of About Place, an online literary journal published by Black Earth Institute.

Coe has served as poet-in-residence at Wheaton College and at the Chautauqua Institution in New York State and is an adjunct professor of English at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, and Bay Path University, where he teaches in both MFA programs. He is co-chair of the Boston Chapter of The National Writers Union, which serves freelance writers and editors.

Rachel Wahlert is a young adult living in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She supports low-income undergraduate students to get them to graduation and find employment. In her free time, you can find her upside down playing capoeira or curled in a ball reading a romance novel. She is honored to be a poet for the Poetry of Science. She is inspired by her grandmothers, her experiences, human suffering, and resilience.