Blackfoot Poetry: from Einstein to Spacetime a talk by Corey Gray and Sharon Yelllowfly (Siksika Nation)

UNC Asheville’s Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership and Cherokee High School are hosting a special lunchtime talk by Corey Gray and Sharon Yellowfly (Siksika Nation), who will share their work translating the physics of black holes and spacetime into the Blackfoot language.

For more information and zoom link (forthcoming), visit sigp.wp.unca.edu/guest-lecture/

About the Speakers:

Corey Gray is Scottish & Blackfoot and a member of the Siksika Nation of Alberta, Canada. He grew up in southern California and received Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and Applied Mathematics from Humboldt State University (HSU). After undergrad, he was hired as a Detector Operator by Caltech in 1998 to work for the astronomy project, LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory) in Washington State. At LIGO, Corey worked on teams to both build and operate gravitational wave detectors. The LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) made historic news in 2016 by announcing the first direct detection of gravitational waves, which helps prove a prediction made 100 years earlier by Albert Einstein! In his free time, Corey likes to backpack, travel, salsa dance, cross-country ski, watch films, share science with the public, and kayak (with wooden kayak he recently built).

Sharon Yellowfly was born and raised on the Blackfoot Indian Reserve in Southern Alberta, Canada. (The Blackfoot Indian Reserve is now known as Siksika Nation.) She was educated in a system set up for indigenous students called Indian Residential Schools. The boarding school she attended nearest her community was Crowfoot Indian Residential School and overseen by nuns and priests. Blackfoot was her first language and she was introduced to English at the boarding school. She received a BA in Anthropology with honors at a California State University in Southern California. At the time, she was one of the rare Native Americans to go into the field. Ms. Yellowfly is currently finishing a dictionary of her language. She has been working on it for over 40 years. She has four children and resides in the mountains of Southern California, but she goes home to the reserve every summer.

This event is made possible with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

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