Baba Brinkman's INGENIOUS NATURE Offers Hip-Hop and Science Education Talkback Tonight

Off-Broadway's rap guide to dating, Ingenious Nature, led by Baba Brinkman at the SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam Street) is offering a Human Nature Talkback Series with experts from the science community. Tonight, Friday, December 14th following the 7:30 PM performance, audience members are invited to stay for the post-performance talk back by guest speaker Dr. Christopher Emdin, a professor from the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Emdin will be discussing the use of hip-hop in urban science classrooms and education.

Dr. Emdin is the author of the book, Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation, and also a columnist for the Huffington Post, where he writes the "Emdin 5" series. His research focuses on issues of race, class, and diversity in urban science classrooms, the use of new theoretical frameworks to transform education, and urban school reform. Dr. Emdin is currently working with the Wu Tang Clan's GZA to bring science literacy to the classroom through hip-hop and was recently featured on StarTalk radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Last week, Ingenious Nature kicked off the talkback series with guest speaker Dr. Gary Marcus, blogger for The New Yorker, Professor of Psychology at NYU, author of four books about cognitive science, including the New York Times Bestseller Guitar Zero and Kluge: The Haphazard Evolution of the Human Mind.

Directed by Darren Lee Cole, Ingenious Nature began performances on Friday, November 23rd, opened Wednesday, December 5th and has a closing date of Sunday, January 6, 2013. In this new theatrical mix tape, everyone's looking for love, or sex, occasionally even both. The science of evolutionary psychology claims to explain why, and how, this state of affairs came about. But can it help us find the right one? A young man decides to take the "science of mating" seriously in his personal quest for true romance. Will the theory work in practice? It turns out, ovulation studies can make for awkward first-date conversation. Ingenious Nature featuring music and turntablism by Mr. Simmonds, lighting by Jason Boyd and projections by Erik Pearson.

Ingenious Nature will play on the SoHo Playhouse Mainstage Wednesdays through Sundays at 7:30pm, until Sunday, January 6, 2013. The running time is approximately 90 minutes without an intermission. Tickets for previews are available for $45. During the run, tickets are available for $65. SoHo Playhouse Season Subscriptions are available for $99 and include 1 ticket to all 3 SoHo Playhouse shows (The Old Man and the Old Moon, Ingenious Nature, and Hamlet in Bed), a $195 value, and is fully tax deductible. To purchase tickets, visit: www.sohoplayhouse.com or call (866) 811-4111.

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