Samford's Christenberry Planeterium will host a combined poetry reading and astronomy presentation at 7 p.m. on March 20--the astronomical vernal equinox, marking the arrival of spring.

The event, Vox Equinox, will feature Birmingham's Big Table Poets reading work from their forthcoming anthology Einstein at the Odeon Caf. Planetarium director George Atchley will place the vernal equinox in its astronomical perspective, inviting an exploration of the common obsession of art and science beneath a dome of stars.

The Big Table Poets take their name, literally, from the large table at a Birmingham bookstore where they meet to critique their work and, figuratively, from the wide range of approaches to poetry their work represents. The "Big Table" accommodates free verse and poetry in traditional forms, the lyrical, the meditative, and the narrative, low humor and high seriousness, all drawn from the diverse lives, experiences, interests, and even obsessions of the Big Table Poets themselves.

The Vox Equinox event is free of charge and open to the public.