YouTube Video Celebrates Omar Khayyam

 Enjoy a 1-minute video celebrating 

the MATH and POETRY of  Omar Khayyam 

This Mathematician Solved Impossible Equations

                               While Writing Poetry -- YouTube   

This blog posting -- from long ago in 2011 -- also features Khayyam.

Omar Khayyam  (1048–1131) was a Persian poet and polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and Persian literature.  He was born in Nishapur, Iran and lived during the Seljuk era, around the time of the First Crusade. 

Cross BRIDGES ... 2026 Bridges Galway Conference

    Each year an international BRIDGES Conference celebrates the connections between mathematics and the arts -- featuring connections with music, literature, visual art, theater . . . Here is a link to the website for the 2026 BRIDGES Conference -- to be held August 5-8 in Galway, Ireland. 

    An important and popular part of each BRIDGES Conference is a Poetry Reading.  Scheduled for Saturday, August 8, 2026, the formal reading will include mathy poems from each of the poets named below; on this webpage (maintained by poetry reading co-organizer--and poet--Sarah Glaz) each of the following names is linked to biographical information and a sample poem.  

Sadness -- Math-Poet Emily Grosholz has passed . . .

        I have been saddened to learn of the death, early in May, of  philosopher, writer, and professor at Penn State University -- and a frequent contributor to this blog --  Emily Rolfe Grosholz.  (Here is a link to her informative obituary.)

       In remembrance of Emiy, here is the opening stanza of her poem ""In Praise of Fractals" -- posted in this blog at this link back in November, 2014.

from "In Praise of Fractals" by Emily Grosholz

This link leads to a list of citations of Emily Grosholz and her work in this blog.

Let's Play Math -- and double Pi!

     A website that I enjoy visiting and one that many current math teachers could enjoy visiting often is 

Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math – Helping families to learn and enjoy math together.

Learn more about Gaskins here in this biographical sketch -- and enjoy her Let's Play Math blog. Here is a link to a posting with several mathy poems:   Math Makers: Write a Poem – Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math.  Here is one of my favorite examples of her postings:

Celebrate Juneteenth!

     This month, America celebrates its Juneteenth, commemorating the day the last group of enslaved African Americans was informed they were free. Juneteenth marks the events of June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas when the last Black slaves of the Confederacy were ordered free following the arrival of Union troops.  Also called Emancipation Day or Freedom Day, the holiday rose to national prominence in 2020 amid nationwide protests against ongoing racial inequities, sparked in part by the police killings of George Floyd, a Black man, and Breonna Taylor, a Black woman. Juneteenth has been long celebrated by the Black community but was officially recognized as a federal holiday by President Joe Biden in 2021.

When is Juneteenth?  Juneteenth is on Friday, June 19, this year.