Each event in the “My Brilliant Pen Pal” series will unfold across several weeks, with correspondences going back and forth between a special guest—the brilliant pen pal—and audience members, providing a unique experience unavailable anywhere, anyhow, or anywhen else. 

At a time in which the U.S. Postal Service is in a crisis, a time in which email has all but replaced postal mail, a time in which the remaining mail we do receive all too often includes only bills or bad news, we wish to celebrate a moment when checking the mailbox could be exciting and fun.  We wish to reinvigorate the pleasure and excitement of having a pen pal.  We wish to put aside the virtual and marvel at the wonders of the physical: the stationery, the rhythm of the correspondence, the stamps, the words and thoughts of a pen pal arriving across countless miles to speak to you. 

Our newest Pen Pals are NASA engineer and Project Missions Manager for the Perseverence rover currently on Mars, Jennifer Trosper, and poet, professor, and essayist Nikki Giovanni.

You can get to know more about Jennifer Trosper here, and you can register for her event here.

You can get to know more about Nikki Giovanni here, and you can register for her event here.