“mɔɹnɪŋ [Morning//Mourning]” Explores Earth After Human Extinction

November 1, 2024
On Nov. 4, Yale Peabody Museum, in partnership with Yale Schwarzman Center, will host an experimental opera that imagines Earth after human extinction…
 
An inscription near the entrance of the Yale Peabody Museum’s first-floor galleries declares the overarching themes of the exhibits that follow: “Life changes the environment and the environment changes life. Extinctions change everything.”
 
The narrative that unfolds from there spans hundreds of millions of years — from the first organisms to inhabit the oceans, through the age of dinosaurs, to the rise of humans. It’s a story of how life has endured and evolved through mass extinctions that wiped out much of the planet’s biodiversity.
 
On Nov. 4, an event at the Peabody will ponder the long-term effects of an extinction that humans might be reluctant to contemplate: our own. In partnership with the Yale Schwarzman Center, the museum will host a performance of “mɔɹnɪŋ [Morning//Mourning],” an experimental opera that ponders the long-term effects of an extinction that humans might be reluctant to contemplate: our own. (“mɔɹnɪŋ” is the phonetic spelling for “morning” and “mourning.”) The event is free and open to the public.
 
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