92Y Launches Second Annual 7 Days Of Genius: Venture Into The Extraordinary

NEW YORK, Jan. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- 92nd Street Y announced today their second annual 7 Days of Genius Festival: Venture into the Extraordinary, to be held March 1 – 8. The festival promises to de-mystify and unravel all things "genius" with events at 92Y and other venues as well as interactive online content at 92Y.org/genius.

7 Days of Genius will curate a nation-wide conversation on and off-line featuring a series of talks at 92Y with luminaries from the worlds of science, technology, religion, art, music, film, literature and business; satellite events at venues including the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC and the Whizin Center for Continuing Education at American Jewish University in Los Angeles; educational programs for students and teachers; innovation and design competitions for students and entrepreneurs; and interactive online content.

7 Days of Genius at 92Y features conversations with Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Walter Isaacson, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein, Nobel Prize-winning economist Dr. Paul Krugman, TODAY Show contributor Dr. Gail Saltz, neuroscientist Dr. Heather Berlin, rapper, playwright and poet Baba Brinkman, and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and Simon Schama. 7 Days of Genius events are available via free live webcast at 92Y.org/genius.

As the Festival's marquee media partner, MSNBC is presenting prime-time programming related to the topic of genius during the week of March 1-8 and offers streamed content from select events on MSNBC.com. The cable news network is also joining the conversation on genius with Twitter chats, behind the scenes video, images and social content using #7DaysofGenius.

"92Y has been an incubator for big ideas for 140 years," said Henry Timms, executive director of 92Y, "and we have always believed in the tremendous power of ideas to shape the world. With 7 Days of Genius, we are creating an open, interactive forum for exploring the most innovative and influential ideas of our time, with an eye toward creating a better future for all."

"We are excited to partner with 92Y on 7 Days of Genius," said Phil Griffin, President, MSNBC.  "Like I've said before, MSNBC is widening our aperture beyond politics.  We are thrilled to share with our audience the thoughts and ideas of luminaries from around the world including the areas of science, technology, religion, art, music, business and more."

7 Days of Genius at 92Y: Programming Highlights Include:
For a complete list of events as they are added, visit 92Y.org/genius.

• March 1, 2015  8:00PM: Off the Top: The Neuroscience of Creativity
  Science rapper Baba Brinkman (Rap Guide to Evolution) teams up with neuroscientist Dr. Heather Berlin, neuropsychologist Rex Jung and cognitive psychologist and science writer Scott Barry Kaufman to explore the brain basis of improvisation, mixing freestyle rap with the latest research.
  
  
• March 2, 2015  8:15PM: The Future of Genius:
  Science writer and futurist Michio Kaku (author of The Future of the Mind) looks at current research into the mind that will allow us to upload our brains onto a computer – neuron for neuron, and send our consciousness across the universe, among other things.
  
  
• March 3, 2015  8:15PM: The Genius of Religion:
  Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, is joined by Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein, 92Y's director of Jewish community and the Bronfman Center for Jewish Life, to explore the genius of religion and faith, and their role as sources of morality and moral behavior.
  
  
• March 4, 2015  8:00PM: The Genius of Economics:
  French economist Thomas Piketty, author of the magnum opus Capital in the Twenty-First Century, joins Nobel laureates Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz (author of The Great Divide) to discuss the genius of economics.
  
  
• March 6, 2015 7:30PM: Closing in on the Big Bang
  Co-presented with World Science Festival
  Renowned theoretical physicist and bestselling author of The Elegant Universe Brian Greene says that after 13.8 billion years, we might be on the brink of unraveling the mystery of the Big Bang, thanks to millennia of scientific progress and the work of geniuses ranging from Galileo to Hawking. See how we got from star-gazing to what we know today.
  
  
• March 8, 2015  5:00PM: Genius of Innovation
  Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute, former chairman of CNN and former managing editor of Time, discusses the people who created the computer and the internet – those one-in-a-million geniuses whose work has impacted every aspect of our lives.
  
  
• March 8, 2015  8:00PM: Genius and Madness:
  Renowned psychoanalyst, author and "TODAY" show contributor Dr. Gail Saltz explores the question of whether there is a link between creativity and mental illness with Professors Dean Simonton, PhD, and James Kaufman, MD, and the author of A Beautiful Mind, Sylvia Nassir, PhD.

Educational Initiatives & Competitions for Students
In addition to the events on stage, 7 Days of Genius informs and excites teachers and students about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through a variety of initiatives.

• GENIUS, Then, Now and Tomorrow is a supplementary middle-school curriculum that focuses on STEM literacy through the lens of ten widely recognized geniuses: Niels Bohr, Thomas Edison, Johannes Kepler, Marie Curie, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, Leonardo DaVinci, Albert Einstein, Galileo Galilei, and Srinivasa Ramanujan. 
• Two competitions for teams of high-school students complement the curriculum: the Design for Good Competition asks students to address the needs of their own communities based on the work of geniuses in the curriculum, and the Genius Video Contest challenges students to create their own videos depicting one particular genius's challenges.  Deadline for submissions is February 13, 2015. Apply at www.92Y.org/genius.
• On March 5, 92Y hosts the 7 Days of Genius Creativity and Innovation Education Fair, which gets educators together with a wide variety of organizations creating products and teaching aids to encourage innovation and STEM learning.

Competitions for Adults
7 Days of Genius also challenges adult entrepreneurs and innovators with two competitions.  With The Genius Start Up Competition, 92Y is looking for the next genius start-up idea with the potential to have the greatest impact on our world – businesses that could impact communities, environments and cultures in a way that will change people's lives for the better. The Genius of Bettering the World Contest asks applicants to identify and investigate a challenge (related to clean energy, education or health) for a particular community and then design a solution.  Deadline for submissions is February 13, 2015.  Apply at www.92Y.org/genius.

Organizations presenting or judging the Festival's competitions are Cornell Tech, RRE Ventures, Tongal, Nightingale-Bamford School, and the Scout Film Festival.

7 Days of Genius receives generous support from individuals and organizations, including the John Templeton Foundation.  MSNBC is the 7 Days of Genius Marquee Media Partner.

Content partners include Big Think, Medium, National Geographic Live, mental_floss, and NYU Skirball Center.  The initial line-up of organizations participating in education programming planned in conjunction with 7 Days of Genius are Discovery Education, Flatiron School, Girls Who Code, The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Liberty Science Center, MadaTech - The Israel National Museum of Science, Technology & Space, Maker State, Museum of Math, New York Hall of Science, NYC FIRST, and The Pixel Academy.

About MSNBC
MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis of daily headlines through commentary and informed perspectives. Reaching more than 96 million households worldwide, MSNBC offers a full schedule of live news coverage, progressive voices, award-winning documentary programming – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. MSNBC also delivers breaking news and information across a variety of platforms including www.msnbc.com and MSNBC on Sirius XM radio. The MSNBC App for iPhone, iPad and iTouch also provide a customizable user experience with live streaming, clips of select MSNBC programming, and additional show content. MSNBC is part of the NBCUniversal News Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast Corporation.

ABOUT 92Y
92nd Street Y is a world-class, nonprofit cultural and community center that fosters the mental, physical and spiritual health of people throughout their lives, offering: wide-ranging conversations with the world's best minds; an outstanding range of programming in the performing, visual and literary arts; fitness and sports programs; and activities for children and families. 92Y is reimagining what it means to be a community center in the digital age with initiatives like the award-winning #GivingTuesday, launched by 92Y in 2012 and now recognized across the US and in a growing number of regions worldwide as a day to celebrate and promote giving. These kinds of initiatives are transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action both locally and around the world. More than 300,000 people visit 92Y annually; millions more participate in 92Y's digital and online initiatives. A proudly Jewish institution, 92Y embraces its Jewish heritage and welcomes people of all backgrounds and perspectives. For more information, visit www.92Y.org.

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