Scenes from the ‘Hoosier Cosmic Celebration’

Bloomington’s premier eclipse celebration took place at Memorial Stadium from 1-5 p.m. Monday. It featured performances and speeches from “Star Trek” actor William Shatner, astronaut Mae Jemison, and grammy-nominated R&B and pop singer Janelle Monáe, as well as several IU performing arts ensembles. 

11:30 a.m.  — The setup

A chorus of horns and booming breakbeats rang out from the grand stage as 10-time Grammy nominated R&B singer Janelle Monáe’s band sound checked in IU Memorial Stadium. The bleachers were mostly vacant, save for the IU band who wandered in to take their seats by the end zone. They occasionally cheered for the horn section of Monáe’s ensemble.   

The sun beamed down on the field, usually made of turf, but today covered in a gray plastic platform for showgoers to stand on.  

A crowd of around 10,000 were expected to flock to the stadium for the main event beginning at 1 p.m., according to Visit Bloomington Executive Director Mike McAfee.  

“I think it's been just this nice steady flow of people I've seen. I've been out and about in town, all weekend,” McAfee said. “Friday, Saturday, Sunday and today I’ve met tons of people from all over the country that are that are here for it.”  

A day once forecasted to be cloudy was turning out to be clear and blue, but the bleachers were mostly empty leading up to the event’s official beginning. The general admission floor was sparsely populated with early birds laying out blankets and staking their spots.  

1:05 p.m. — A performance from IU Theatre

Clad in flashy red, white and blue costumes, the Indiana University Musical Theatre department and College of Arts and Sciences Theater and Dance department put their skills on display throughout their half-hour set. Like many performances throughout eclipse weekend, the departments presented a celestial-themed setlist.  

They performed several Broadway and pop ballads including Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” Katrina and the Waves’ “Walking on Sunshine,” and Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky.” “Let the Sunshine In” by the 5th Dimension capped off their performance.  

The chance to perform in a stadium setting at the same event as Janelle Monáe was an awe-inspiring moment for some student performers. 

“I think that performing on the same stage, knowing that she was just there kind of brings me even more just spiritual, like excitement and just ready to go,” Madeline Corday, a contemporary dance major, said. “The adrenaline of performing for this many people is just insane.”   

The groups spent a month and a half preparing for this event.  

“We’ve been working on it for a while so we’re super excited to perform,” Sir Jonathan Thompson, a freshman musical theatre major, said.  

1:35 p.m. — “Minor Bodies”

Dancers Samiyah Lynnice and IU alumnus Corey Boatner pushed and pulled each other away as if gravitationally propelled during their duet dance performance “Minor Bodies.” 

The title of the piece, Minor Bodies, was fitting for the day at hand. Minor bodies in astronomical terms are small objects — such as asteroids, comets or space junk — that drift around in space. They’re the seemingly insignificant pieces of rock floating along aimlessly. 

But Minor Bodies isn’t about insignificance.  

Choreographer Elizabeth Shea, an IU professor and director of the Contemporary Dance Program, said she was asked to choreograph a romance for Eisenhower Dance Detroit.  

“I don’t really do romantic,” she said. “We’re going to do something about soul mates.” 

Lynnice and Boatner danced around each other, at first hesitant to approach, then warm to the idea, and then all at once embracing. They both said when they perform, they feel the emotions of the performance and their own emotions deeply.  

“To be out in space wandering for millions of years, and I finally find somebody else. What does that feel like?” Lynnice said. “It feels like curiosity. Hope. Maybe you’re a little scared because you don’t know.” 

Usually, a dance number as complex as “Minor Bodies” would take months to learn, according to Boatner. But in preparation for their performance, Boatner and Lynnice had two and a half days.  

Both Boatner and Lynnice are a part of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, a professional dance company based in Denver. They learned the choreography almost exclusively remotely through videos sent from Shea.  

“We went to school for this, and now it feels good to come back and be here and do it,” Boatner said.  

For Boatner, coming back is a literal turn of phrase. Boatner graduated from IU in 2020 and has since performed with a number of dance companies. For Lynnice, this was her first time in Bloomington.  

Both share a Bloomington connection in professor and dancer Baba Stafford Berry Jr., a local legend who has performed all over the US as a student of mid-20th century Black dancers.  

“When I was like four, he gave me a blessing,” Lynnice said. “It’s amazing now to come back at 28 and be able to perform for him and for Liz and Corey as well.” 

Totality lay imminent while they performed, but as two soul mates finding themselves in a lost universe, Boatner and Lynnice created their own little world on the stage. 

2:10 p.m. — Mae Jemison speaks

Astronaut, doctor, engineer and professor Mae Jemison began her speech and discussed the importance of reflection on a special event like the solar eclipse.  

“It's really cosmic magic where the universe shows us its work,” Jemison said. “The universe shows us clues in the cosmos above and if you look closely enough, we get to find out some things about ourselves.” 

Jemison, the first Black woman to go to space, spoke about her upbringing and the beginnings of her career as an astronaut. She referenced her fandom of the original Star Trek series featuring William Shatner, a reference the crowd applauded. Jemison also told the story of her first sight in space, her hometown of Chicago.  

She concluded her speech by encouraging the attendees to reflect on how they spend their time, especially in the presence of such a rare celestial occurrence. 

2:38 p.m. — William Shatner’s story 

“Star Trek” actor William Shatner took the stage at 2:38 p.m. Shatner, 93, shared what he called a “campfire story.” The campfire story was the story of the earth, the moon and the  human lives between them.  

Behind Shatner was an orchestral ensemble of Jacobs School of Music students and IU’s premiere student choir, NOTUS.  

Shatner’s poem began the way Earth began: 4.5 billion years ago. He took listeners from the Permian era of strange reptilian creatures, to the dawn of humanity, to the crowd watching him in a semicircle in the bleachers. 

Shatner is well-acquainted with space. As Captain Kirk in the science fiction series “Star Trek” of TV and film, he traversed galaxies on the Starship Enterprise. Outside of TV, Shatner became the oldest man to go to space at 90 years old when he boarded Jeff Bezos’ “Blue Origin” space shuttle in 2021. 

As Shatner continued to talk, underscored by an epic symphony, the light in the stadium slowly dimmed. The once blazing sun began to lose its potency. A light breeze swept through the stadium, raising hairs on necks and goosebumps on skin. 

Shatner began the final section of his monologue. 

“The moon is going to insert itself between us and the sun,” Shatner said. “Sparrows in the skies will glide, bewildered by the unexpected darkness and hunker down for the night. Ghostly owls and curious bobcats will come out to hunt, equally miffed by the sudden night.” 

Shatner’s speech died down first, followed by the orchestra’s volume falling to a whisper.  

The stadium too fell silent. By 3 p.m., the cacophony of voices dimmed into a murmur. 

Shatner’s final words of his speech, though premature by about nine minutes, rang in everyone’s mind.  

“And now, the eclipse.” 

3:30 p.m.  — Janelle Monáe performs 

Once totality had passed, some in the bleachers started to file out of the stadium. Others stayed for a dynamite performance from 10-time grammy nominated pop and R&B singer Janelle Monáe. 

Monáe made her grand entrance, donning a shawl adorned with flowers, matching the floral crown she sports. Her knee-high leg warmers were also covered with flowers.  She quickly dropped the shawl after the opening piece, but the floral theme remained throughout, with her background dancers sporting bright colors and flowery decorations on the stage screens.  

Some of the instrumental was piped in through the speakers, but she was also accompanied by a live band of drums, bass, electric guitar, and a horn section.  

“How are you all feeling?” she asked the crowd. The response, in accordance with the name of the song she was playing, was “Phenomenal.”  

She discarded her flowery wreath for a red beret and a black-and-white schoolgirl outfit for the song “Django Jane”. It was one of five wardrobe changes during her show. The stage lights went red, and the monitors displayed a moon colored a deep red as she rapped over the song’s heavy bass and drum line. 

Monáe played her classics, but also some of her new hits. One new hit was “Lipstick Lover”, which hit #1 on the Billboard R&B charts last year, from her 2023 album “The Age of Pleasure.” 

“I love you all so much,” she shouted to the crowd as the reggae shuffle bounced along in the background.  

At the end of the show, she left the stage for a few minutes, before coming back for an encore at the crowd’s request.  

She re-emerged on stage donning a black fedora with a cropped glittery black suit and tie for her most popular song, “Make Me Feel.”  

Before the second song of her encore, “Tightrope,” Monáe gave a strongly worded speech voicing her support for transgender people , essential workers and other marginalized groups.  She condemned lying politicians and urged listeners to vote for someone who will create change. Finally, she thanked those in the audience who refused to stand for abusers.  

She ended her set with the 2012 hit “We Are Young”, which she was featured on. She walked off the stage while the song was still ending, leaving only an audience clapping along to the rhythm in her wake.