Society for the Performing Arts Presents Neil deGrasse Tyson: Astronomy Bizarre in January 2022

Society for the Performing Arts (SPA) welcomes the return of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, on Monday, January 17, 2022, 7:30 PM at Jones Hall. The theme of the evening's program will be "Astronomy Bizarre."

The list of cool things in the universe is long and occasionally scary: Black Holes, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Diamond Stars, Gamma Ray Bursts, White Holes, Worm Holes, Multiverses. Join Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, head of NYC's Hayden Planetarium and host of FOX's Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, for a review of all that bends minds the most in the cosmos.

In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public. From 1995 to 2005, Tyson was a monthly essayist for Natural History magazine under the title Universe. And among Tyson's fifteen books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the 2004 PBS NOVA four-part mini-series Origins, in which Tyson served as on-camera host.

For five seasons, beginning in the fall of 2006, Tyson appeared as the on-camera host of PBS NOVA's spinoff program NOVA ScienceNOW, which is an accessible look at the frontier of all the science that shapes the understanding of our place in the universe.

Now also a popular podcast, for three years it enjoyed a limited-run television series on the National Geographic Channel. StarTalk combines celebrity guests with informative yet playful banter. The target audience is all those people who never thought they would, or could, like science. In its first year on television and in three successive seasons, it was nominated for a Best Informational Programming Emmy.

More recently, Tyson published Astrophysics for People In A Hurry in 2017, which was a domestic and international bestseller. That was followed in 2018 by Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military, co-authored with Avis Lang, in 2019 by Letters from an Astrophysicist, both New York Times Bestsellers, and in 2021 by Cosmic Queries: StarTalk's Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We are Going, coauthored with James Trefil.

Tyson served as Executive Science Editor and on-camera Host & Narrator for Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, the 21st century continuation of Carl Sagan's landmark television series. The show began in March 2014 and ran thirteen episodes in primetime on the FOX network and appeared in 181 countries in 45 languages around the world on the National Geographic Channels. Tyson reprised his role as on-camera host for the next season of Cosmos-Cosmos: Possible Worlds, which premiered on the National Geographic Channel in March 2020 and on the FOX network in September 2020.

Tyson is the fifth head of the world-renowned Hayden Planetarium in New York City and the first occupant of its Frederick P. Rose Directorship. He is also a research associate of the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History.

The 21/22 Season features many literary greats. To deepen the patron experience, Society for the Performing Arts has partnered with Harrison County Public Library to launch Pages & Stages, the SPA Book Club. Readers are invited to attend a pre-show conversation at Jones Hall on Dr. Tyson's book, Cosmic Theories. Pages & Stages participants will hear from a special guest speaker and meet fellow science and literature fans. Details and registration will be published soon at spahouston.org.

Other upcoming 21/22 Season Pages & Stages events include pre-show deep dives into works by Fran Lebowitz (FEB 15, Jones Hall), David Sedaris (APR 28, Wortham Center), and Neil Gaiman (MAY 22, Jones Hall).

To post a comment, you must register and login.