What's on tap for Brain Awareness Week 2022?

By Casey Lardner, PhD

This Brain Awareness Week, prepare to learn, laugh, connect, and MOVE. 

Organized by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and the European Dana Alliance for the Brain, Brain Awareness Week was first held in 1996 with the intention of gathering diverse groups and their interests across academia, government, business, and advocacy organizations. The goal? To rally under the idea that research on the brain represents hope for brain health and a high quality of life for all. 

Further, Brain Awareness Week was first convened with the notion that treatments, prevention, and cures for brain disorders will become reality when approached from as many perspectives as possible.  What started with 160 organizations in the United States 26 years ago is now a global initiative involving 7,300 partners in 120 countries. 

BraiNY has been a proud partner of the Dana Foundation and host to Brain Awareness Week events in the greater NYC region since 2012, marking BAW 2022 as a celebratory tenth anniversary for us and all of our partners. In keeping with the Dana Foundation’s ideal for a network of brain enthusiasts, our leadership is currently made up of folks from Columbia University, NYU Langone Health, CUNY School of Medicine, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Weill Cornell Medicine. We’re always looking for more representation, so if your institution or group isn’t listed here, drop us a line to get involved!

In 2021, BraiNY worked alongside our partners to shift Brain Awareness Week online. In 2022, the official younger sibling to the year of hybrid meetings, we have an amazing lineup of events accessible online, in-person, or both! Keep reading for the where, when, and who details your hippocampus craves. (All times are EDT.)

Wednesday, March 9th, 7pm

Join The Story Collider online for a livestream of four stories about brains and our relationship to them. This show is called “Brainstorm” and will be livestreamed from The Tank in NYC with hosts Fola Olusanya and Paula Croxson and storytellers Jonathan Venegoni, Maya Maharaj, Erica Rodriguez, and Hana Schank. 

Friday, March 11th, 9:30pm

SCIENCE 101 is a science comedy show featuring drinking games, ridiculous audience polls, blistering hot takes, "art" challenges, votes for tenure, and real, actual scientists. This month, in honor of Brain Awareness Week, the show is all about BRAINS, and they’ll be joined by comedian, science communicator, and neuroscientist Shannon Odell, PhD. Join the fun at Caveat (21 A Clinton St., Manhattan) for the only class where attendance is 99% of your grade! 

Saturday, March 12th, 9pm

Facts Machine presents “All You Need Is Lobe,” a science comedy, storytelling, and trivia show extravaganza inspired by neuroscience. Scientists by day and pub trivia hosts by night, Em, Noah, and Rob will be joined by guest neuroscientists and science communicators Leslie Sibener and Devon Collins, PhD, as they get tangled up in neural nets, celebrate Dendritic Arbor Day, and fight for neurite to party! Why not hit up Caveat two nights in a row this weekend?! (21 A Clinton St., Manhattan).

Thursday, March 17th through Sunday, March 20th

Join hundreds of like-minded people interested in yoga and the brain for the Neuroscience & Yoga Online Conference. This year, the event will bring together neuroscientists and yoga teachers to build knowledge of the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of yoga in three key areas: yoga + child development, yoga + brain aging, and yoga + substance use disorder. With speakers and teachers renowned across their fields, you’ll find quality and inclusivity, eureka moments, and the kind of powerful connections only established through movement.  

Saturday, March 19th

From 11am to 1pm join us for Hands-On Brain Activities at Genspace, the world’s first community biology lab currently located in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Join Genspace’s brilliant staff and BraiNY volunteers for a sheep brain dissection, brainy arts and crafts, memory tasks, optical illusions, taste, smell, and touch experiments, and competitions (with prizes!) at 132 32nd St., Suite #108 in Brooklyn. 

Sunday, March 20th

At 12pm, join Simply Neuroscience for a virtual fireside chat with Dr. Ubadah Sabbagh, a neuroscientist at MIT's McGovern Institute. Dr. Sabbagh co-founded Black In Neuro and was named to the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. His work has been featured in the Washington Post, Scientific American, and other publications. You can register here right up until the start of the event.

Next, head to Arts on Site (12 Saint Marks Pl., 3f) for iNut: An Artificial Intelligence Nutcracker, a performance at 4pm by dance company Bodies Never Lie. Discover the 9 principles of neuroaesthetics – how the brain engages with art – while questioning the impact of technology through the musical and comedic lens of the traditional ballet The Nutcracker. The performance will include optional interaction between performers and audience.

Saturday, March 26th

Finally, to round out the week, head up to Harlem, from 11am to 3pm, none other than the BioBus will be parked in front of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building (163 125th St, Manhattan) for a Brain Awareness Week celebration called “Brains, Dance, and Yoga.” This will be an interactive public event on the Plaza of Adam Clayton Powell where folks can talk to neuroscientists, hold a human brain, and learn about the connections between dance, yoga, and neuroscience. Come for the brains, stay for the free yoga class at 1pm. (A limited number of mats will be available to take home!)

That will be a wrap for Brain Awareness Week 2022, but our programming doesn’t stop there. Throughout the year we host a virtual journal club, open to all, and blog about all things neuroscience. 

Casey Lardner, PhD received her bachelor’s degree from William & Mary and her doctorate from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where her work focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying substance use disorder. Currently, she is a Program Coordinator in the Neuroscience Institute at NYU Langone Health. In her spare time she is an avid runner, concert-goer, and science storyteller.