MathArtist John Sims: Pi (Day) is for everyone

On Sunday, March 13, 1:00 p.m., you and your family are invited to the Exploratorium for Poetry, Pi & Pies with John Sims, featuring Tongo Eisen-Martin (San Francisco Poet Laureate) and Ayodele Nzinga (Oakland Poet Laureate) plus Pies by Pietisserie

by John Sims 

The circle is one of our most celebrated forms. Either as an object of the mathematician’s mind or living on the edges of the moon, the circle is simply beautiful and beautifully simple. When you divide its core element (diameter) into its outer body (circumference), you will get something constant and magically special: the birth of Pi = 3.14159 … . 

A non-repeating, never-ending irrational wild number, Pi is endowed with enormous complexity and the capacity to capture the imagination and curiosity of collective minds in search of the truth and beauty of nature, as well as the capacity for human expression through the lens of science, mathematics and art. 

Every March 14 (3/14), we celebrate Pi Day, a national holiday started in 1988 by physicist Larry Shaw at San Francisco’s Exploratorium, a museum that interrogates the world through science, technology and art. In 2009, the House of Representatives passed Resolution 224, designating March 14 as National Pi Day. The resolution “encourages schools and educators to observe the day with appropriate activities that teach students about Pi and engage them about the study of mathematics.” 

Since 2009, Pi Day has become an international event where celebrants eat pies and pizzas, as well as recite the digits of Pi. This geek holiday has gone mainstream with a wide range of events – from the store 7/11 running special $3.14 pizza deals to the  NASA Pi Day Challenge. I contributed to Pi love fest,too, by creating a collection of Pi-based quilts and the Pi Day anthem, featuring internet sensation and math-musician Vi Hart. 

Beyond Pi, mathematics in general should be celebrated. It is a beautiful language and powerful way of thinking that helps us explore the physical world; math gives us the tools to see, understand and express on levels deeper than our five senses can otherwise access. Alongside that, it is also a pathway to learn to think critically, abstractly and even creatively. 

When liberated from the service of science, mathematics has its own integrity of expression, remarkable landscape, and capacity to inform and collaborate with the creative process across the arts. So Pi Day presents an opportunity not only to celebrate the digits of Pi and all things circular, but also to honor mathematics in a larger cultural context by contributing to who we have become as abstract-thinking Homo sapiens.

However, there is also an opportunity to go beyond the festivities of Pi Day and reflect on the role of mathematics as a gatekeeper, alienator and unwitting agent of division and even white supremacy. We see this played out in how mathematics is positioned around the complicated and sensitive issues of intelligence, as well as how mathematics instruction has traumatized millions of students. It can be seen in how failure in mathematics has dwarfed and diverted the professional dreams of countless people. 

When you look at how mathematics literacy and achievement are related to earning power and economic mobility, you can see a space that favors some groups over others and where women, Black people and even artists are written off from an early age. As long as STEM education, museums and curricula do not address the political and demographic dimension of this divide in critically actionable ways, then the pursuit of inclusion and real social and cultural justice will ring hollow. 

While mathematics can be seen to divide us, it can also be an agent of freedom and access. The late Bob Moses, mathematics educator, civil rights legend, founder of the Algebra Project and author of “Radical Equation: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project,” advocated for mathematics literacy as a tool for liberation and as necessary as civil rights. 

Mathematics can be an agent of freedom and access. The late Bob Moses, mathematics educator, civil rights legend, founder of the Algebra Project and author of “Radical Equation: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project,” advocated for mathematics literacy as a tool for liberation and as necessary as civil rights.

He states: “The most urgent social issue affecting poor people and people of color is economic access. In today’s world, economic access and full citizenship depend crucially on math and science literacy. I believe that the absence of math literacy in urban and rural communities throughout this country is an issue as urgent as the lack of registered Black voters in Mississippi was in 1961.”

Mathematics is a parameter of human cognition. Its facility is as necessary as walking through space, as walking through the economy and walking across the lines of race, class and gender. This is why it is important to advocate for proactive outreach and creative connective mathematics curricula, where we all are invited and nurtured to sit at the circle of mathematics. At the same time, it is also critical for all of us to understand the importance of being in this circle and to resist the historical inertia of exclusion and claim space, claim desire and claim entry.  

So on this Pi Day, let us find the circles of unity that connect both halves of our brains, our different cultures, our complex communities, our nation and our planet as we continue the quilted work of creating and discerning the wonderful codes and patterns of nature. Also, let us reflect on the work needed to increase mathematics literacy for us all. Let us honor the creative nature of mathematics and its connection to culture in inclusive ways as a community and as a culture – because mathematics is for everyone and Pi is for everyone. Pi Day is for everyone.

John Sims is a Sarasota-based multimedia math artist, writer and activist. Currently he is artist in residence at the Exploratorium for the 35th Annual Pi Day Celebration and where his Pi quilts and MathArt film will be on exhibition until the end of March. Sims can be reached on Twitter: @johnsimsproject.    

Pi Day events  

San Francisco – John Sims, creator of the Pi Day Anthem, is being hosted by the The Exploratorium for the month of March as an artist in residency and will showcase a select body of works inspired by Pi and the intersections of mathematics, art and activism. The centerpiece of his “Art of Pi” residency will be a live performance of poetry, film and music created and curated by Sims for this year’s Pi Day. During Sims’ Exploratorium residency, the Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore and Gallery will be hosting the artist for an exhibition and a series of other events. Gourmet pies by Pietisserie will be served at several of the events. On Monday, March 14 (3.14), 2022, the Exploratorium will open their doors to celebrate Pi Day – an annual holiday invented by the museum to honor the mathematical constant and neverending number (and Albert Einstein’s birthday). Pi Day first began at the non-profit institution in 1988 and has become an internationally-celebrated event for math enthusiasts, educators and curious people globally. John Sims’ time in residency expands the impact and access to the Exploratorium’s interest in art and math. For the month of March, the Exploratorium will exhibit two of Sims’ pi inspired quilts (“Seeing Pi” and “Civil Pi Movement”) as well as a selection of math art videos. John Sims will do the keynote speech for the After Dark program on March 10, and on Saturday, March 12, screen his math-art film “Artis Mathematicae,” On Sunday, March 13, he will part of a Poetry and Pi program alongside Tongo Eisen-Martin and Ayodele Nzinga, the poet laureates of San Francisco and Oakland, respectively.  Complete schedule of Exploratorium programming: Seeing Pi, Civil Pi Movement:A Quilt Exhibition + MathArt Video Installation On View March 3-31, 2022, in Gallery 1 (Math Cinema) After Dark / Square Roots: Quilted ManifestoA Keynote Speech Thursday, March 10, 2022, at 8 p.m. in the Kanbar Forum Saturday Cinema: “Artis Mathematicae” Film Screening Saturday, March 12, 2022, at 1 p.m. in the Kanbar Forum Poetry, Pi & Pies with John SimsFeaturing Tongo Eisen-Martin (S.F. Poet Laureate)and Ayodele Nzinga (Oakland Poet Laureate)Pies by Pietisserie Sunday, March 13, 2022, at 1 p.m. in the Kanbar Forum 35th Annual Pi Day Celebration: John Sims’ Dear Pi Letter and Blue Piwith Kim Shock and Sylvia Blalock Monday, March 14, 2022, at 12 noon in the Wattis Studio The Pi Day Livestream is free on the Exploratorium’s Facebook page and on YouTube, and a variety of Pi materials, resources and activities are available for free on the museum’s website here.

As a part of his residency, Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore and Gallery will be hosting Sims’ “BlackPi/AfroDixie: A Critical Confiscation Theory,” on view March 4-25, 2022. This exhibition intersects two large systems of work: “SquareRoot: A Quilted Manifesto,” which deals with the mathematics versus art divide and the other one,“Recoloration Proclamation” responds to the sounds and symbols of a Confederate state of mind. Also there will be a poetry reading featuring selections from the “Patrice Lumumba Anthology” on March 8 and a Pi Day screening of his film “Arte Mathematicae” on March 14. John Sims’ events at Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore and Gallery:  Art Opening: BlackPi/AfroDixie: A Righteous ConfiscationFriday, March 4, 2022, at 6-8 p.m. PST Exhibition on view: March 1–25, 2022 Hybrid (virtual/in-person) event Live music by David Boyce and poetry with an artist talk by John Sims Link to attend virtually: https://fb.me/e/kvxfTAuLA Address for in-person attendance: Medicine for Nightmares, 3036 24th St., San Francisco, CA 94110  Patrice Lumumba Anthology Celebration with John Sims Tuesday, March 8, 2022, at 6-8 p.m. PST Hybrid (virtual/in-person) event Celebration of Nomadic Press’ + EastSide Arts Alliance’s “Patrice Lumumba Anthology” (cover art by John Sims). Live music by Azuah, readings by anthology contributors Mimi Tempestt, Brandon Logans, Adrienne Danyelle Oliver and Tureeda Mikell, and an art tour by John Sims Order the anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Patrice-Lumumba-Anthology-Writers-Liberation/dp/1734437790Link to attend virtually: https://fb.me/e/2hbtGx91I Address for in-person attendance: Medicine for Nightmares, 3036 24th St., San Francisco, CA 94110  Film Screening: Artis Mathematicae by John Sims Monday, March 14, 2022 (Pi Day), at 6-8 p.m. PST In-person event Film screening to be followed by short artist talk Pies by PietisserieTrailer: https://vimeo.com/680207553 Link for more information: https://fb.me/e/2fgy9VaqZ Address for in-person attendance: Medicine for Nightmares, 3036 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110