The crowd gazes at the "big" screen.

Curiosity drew a large, diverse crowd of hundreds to Times Square last night.

The horde set themselves up an hour before the landing was scheduled to occur, with headphones, blankets and lawn chairs, some coming from quite a distance, to watch NASA's live broadcast of the ultra-advanced rover touch down on Mars.

Chris Holderson, who worked on the entry descendant landing system as an intern at the NASA Mars science laboratory six years ago, came in from Connecticut.

"This is really NASA's flagship mission of the decade, and one of the most exciting things to come out of NASA in the past few years," Mr. Holderson said.

"We have a tank on Mars. It's War of the Worlds in reverse," joked Jay Searson.

"Poor Martians didn't know what hit 'em," agreed Mr. Holderson.

Others, like Dane Laskey, stuck in town due to a delayed flight, had not planned the excursion but delighted in the opportunity to witness history.

"I'm here serendipitously," he said. " I was sitting in the airport thinking, what am I going to do? And then I realized, wait a minute, it's being broadcast in Times Square. This is fate. I'm here in New York, I'm trapped here all night, I have to come watch it here."

Charles Parker, of Cambridge, England, waxed nostalgic for the last Mars landing.

"I remember back in late 90s when they landed Pathfinder and that whole moment when they realized that they got the wheels tangled in the parachute," he mused. "I just really want to see this work."

That was everyone's hope as they peered upward at the screen, which most thought to be disappointingly distant and small.

"If I had my way I'd have a projector on the side of a building," said Mr. Parker.

"It should be broadcast on all of these screens," said Olivia Acerra.

"It obviously takes a lot of money to take a screen in Times Square, but how often do you land on Mars?" asked Mr. Holderson

"The PR people at NASA don't really know what they're doing. They're scientists, they're not marketers, or artists. I just wish they would have hired one of those authors or artists to tell them how to do this," added Mr. Searson.

"When I thought of Times Square, the stereotypical large screens, I come out here and it's like a laptop screen," said Timothy Stowell of Massachusetts.

Even if the screen was small, the excited energy was high. Marian Courtney of Long Island arrived before the crowd amassed wearing a NASA shirt and a big grin on her face. "I'm a NASA fan. I love space," the University of Dakota space studies student said. "I'm a little disappointed. I thought [the screen] was going to be one of the bigger ones. But we're all here," she said. "It's bringing people together."

And even if you didn't hear NASA's live audio feed using the special smartphone app, it was clear exactly when the Curiosity landed: the crowd erupted into cheers. A rowdy bunch near the front burst into a happily off-key rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Alternating chants of, "USA! USA!" and "NASA! NASA!" resounded through the Square, echoing the earlier cries of "Science! Science!" A few determined people began Tebowing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GysRMm_rl8M

"Yes!" one fist-pumping man said, celebrating the safe landing. "Fuck you, Budweiser!"  he yelled, gesturing at one of Times Square's signature video bilboards that was not livestreaming the historic moment.

Several NASA representatives, including Sarah Ramsey, wandered through the crowd handing out pins, stickers, bookmarks and wristbands.

"This is an amazing, amazing crowd," Ms. Ramsey said. "I have never heard any crowd chant, 'NASA.'" She also noted the location was appropriate, given the importance of the occasion. "This is where you think of in big events in history. You think of people standing in Times Square. I can't think of a better place," she said.

A group of friends who had come from Brooklyn reflected on witnessing the historic moment and Curiosity's social media tendency.

"Oh my God, how did it not crash?" Alison Wilgus screamed. "I spent a huge amount of time managing my expectations. 'It's going to crash, it's going to go horribly wrong, all of my dreams will be shattered...'"

"And it didn't!" John Leavitt cut in.

"And then I just sat here with tears streaming down my face," Ms. Wilgus grinned.

"There's a picture from another planet and we're sitting here looking at it and it's only a 14-minute delay. Holy crap!" Mr. Leavitt said.

"Of course the first picture [the rover sent] from Mars is of itself. Like the Facebook generation. 'I'm on Mars! OMG!'" Ms. Wilgus exclaimed.

One of the adorable participants participates adorably. (Photo: Instagram/PoetrySocietyNY)

"Because I could not stop for death," read one sign for the New York Poetry Festival chalked into the pavement on Governor's Island on Saturday, "I KEPT WALKING."

If you kept walking, you'd run into the festival, sponsored by the Poetry Society of New York, as it stretched across the lawn at Colonels' Row, fenced with white banners and food trucks. In front of each of the three small stages bearing the names "Chumley's," "The Algonquin" and "The White Horse," around 20 attendees sat cross-legged or mermaid-style on blankets.

Those who were not inclined to pay the $5 entrance fee leaned against the fence as a bizarre medley of voices echoed through the space, either floating into ears of passersby or slammed their senses with the extra oomph of the amps.

"Who's your daddy?" screamed one man repeatedly, his beard bristling as his voice magnified across the clearing. Bemused passerby, lured in by his raucous cries, paused at the edge of the field before their faces blanked in the expressive equivalent of a shrug as they strolled on.

"I bring you all, the incandescent beauty of An Incandescent Firefly!" howled an announcer before ushering a petite girl onto the stage. Her soft lyrics melded into the background as a woman on another stage read, "I painted her toes summer indigo on rhinestones. Stars, momma. You could walk on stars forever."

The festival, which is in its second year, boasted poets from magazines, journals and other organizations such as the Poetry Brothel, Underwater New York and MadHat in its lineup for Saturday and Sunday. This year it introduced a new children's festival where kids could play and write in a village of teepees and balloons. Every hour or so, the children could take the stage to read their own words.

But in the meantime the adults raged or waxed nostalgic, made wild gestures or slouched self-consciously, peered over their glasses at neatly written pages or held leaflets at arms length.

"Shut up!" boomed one woman into her mike, enthusiastic or slightly frustrated or both. "Do not try to shout over me while I am reading!"

Another voice, recognizing the outburst for the poetry that it was, droned on, unfazed.

Freida Pinto, on the red carpet. (Nicholas Hunt/PatrickMcMullan.com)

Last night's Cinema Society screening of Trishna at the IFC Center began with the usual glimpses of celebrity—Meg Ryan swooped past in her hat and sunglasses, and Billy Connolly slipped by with his wife.

But actress and heroine of the film Freida Pinto took her time sauntering down the red carpet, glowing in a white Rachel Roy creation, and shared that she is currently reading the Tom Hardy classic Tess of the d’Urbervilles, of which Trishna is a modern adaptation, for the second time. “The first time I read the book, I never thought that India would be such a great setting for it,” she said. “And the second time, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I am such an idiot.' It is so perfect!”

Fashion designer and philanthropist Rachel Roy, on the other hand, grinned when The Observer asked her if she’d read the book.

“Of course I have!” she laughed. “Can’t you tell I’m a romantic? I’ve married twice!”

But the darker and more serious side of Trishna could not be ignored even in the middle of Greenwich Village. The film follows an ultimately tragic relationship between a woman ill-equipped to defend herself because of her social status and lack of education and a well-to-do young man who fails to understand that gap between them.

Ms. Pinto commented that making the film was a stressful experience because of the harsh environment where they filmed and the thought she put into her character. “I was quite surprised that I had the strength to do it,” she said. “When you go home you have to be, ‘Okay, I’m not Trishna, I’m Freida.’ You’ve got to tell yourself that a couple of times.”

She also noted the unusual exercise she got playing a hotel worker in the movie. “A lot of carrying the trays built my arm muscles. I literally had one large bicep,” she laughed.

She hastened to add that she was eager to make the film. “The things we are talking about this film apply to a lot of places," including America, she said. “I read about one of the churches where this man had 80 wives…It applies to every place and any place that understands what sexual double standards mean.”

Below the jump are our five must-dos for the jam-packed weekend offerings (panels! screenings! rock shows!) of the inaugural festival.

1. Free CBGB Festival Concert in Times Square
Why we're excited: Uh, guys, it's a free concert in Times Square. Six hours of indie rock, hard rock, electronic rock and bluegrass, featuring bands such as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Hold Steady, Superchunk and Zulu Wave--no wonder they're expecting record attendance.
When: Saturday, July 7, noon to 6 p.m.
Where: Times Square, stages on Broadway at 45th and 61st Streets

2. Scoring on the Bowery Doesn't Mean What It Used To: Creating Original Music For Film, panel discussion
Why we're excited: This panel, part of the film conference branch of the festival, focuses on the unique challenges of creating music for film. Beyond technical chatter, there is the promise of "scandalous dish" from panelists and veteran composers Nathan Larson (Silent House), Paul Cantelon (The Other Boleyn Girl, New York, I Love You), Missy Cohen (The Big Lebowski, Sex and the City) and Stephen Trask (Hedwig and the Angry Itch, Dreamgirls).
When: Friday, July 6, 3 p.m.
Where: Magno Screening Room, Theater B

3. Michael Cerveris and Loose Cattle, concert
Why we're excited: Mr. Cerveris just got his 5th Tony nomination for his role in Evita this year. And for the scatterings of fiercely loyal Fringe fans, just think about it: It's September, our favorite Observer (Get it? Read this, if you don't.), singing on stage. Mind. Blown. And Loose Cattle, the band named after a road sign, plays music that has been compared to "a night in a neglected pasture corralling Ferdinand the Bull, Babe the Blue Ox and mad cow disease."
When: Friday, July 6, 5 p.m.
Where: Eataly's Birreria

4. End of the Century: The Story of The Ramones, screening
Why we're excited: This beloved 2003 documentary feature is a modern classic. How better to celebrate the CBGB Festival than remembering the band that's practically synonymous with CBGB?  (And, to work up some excitement before the screening, you can catch Tommy Ramone, the last surviving member of the original line-up of the punk quartet, performing with a slew of others tonight at 7 p.m. in the Map Room at BE.)
When: Friday, July 6, 8:15 p.m.
Where: Anthology Film Archives, The Maya Deren Theater

5. CBGB: Tales from the Club, panel discussion
Why we're excited: We're feeling nostalgic, and this panel will give the opportunity for the people who were there--a bartender, a manager, an artist and a booking agent--to reminisce about what the club was like, and what it stood for.
When: Thursday, July 5, 5 p.m.
Where: Landmark Sunshine Cinema

Ishle Park, poet laureate of Queens, reads to the audience.

The Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s magazine launch party expected only around 300 guests to come and support their three new titles, but ended up hosting a much larger audience of all races and ethnicities.

“There were over at least 1,000 people at the party over the course of the night, likely more," said Sara Faye Lieber, writer and digital media strategist for AAWW.

Participants ranged from Theresa Li, an activist for DREAM Act, to Marguerite Desir, a designer from the West Indies with diamond-studded sunglasses and a heavily beaded necklace.

“It’s connecting the dots together,” Ms. Desir said. “I believe we are all connected, and in not staying to one tradition and spreading it out.”

The crowd only quieted down to a loud murmur when the party’s main event began and speakers such as artist Julio Salgado, Bhangra music mixer DJ Rekha, Queens poet laureate Ishle Park, writer Tao Lin and Christina Xu, founder of the Awesome Foundation, took the stage. Even then Comedy Central’s Hari Kondabalu, sent several quips towards the food and drinks stands in addition to his repertoire of race-related jokes.

The crowd’s variety could be because the AAWW was launching three magazines—The Margins, Open City and CultureStrike. The three publications cover a large range of issues.

The Margins is AAWW’s flagship magazine, which its website calls a “bold new online magazine dedicated to inventing the Asian American creative culture of tomorrow.” CultureStrike is a publication dedicated to immigration issues. Open City, as executive director Ken Chen observes, is a “New York Magazine for the places that are rarely portrayed…Jackson Heights, Richmond Hill, Chinatown, Sunset Park and Flushing.”

So why come out with three magazines at once? Open City and CultureStrike have been in soft launch, but that night they shared the spotlight with The Margins as new and reinvented publications.

Mr. Chen cited the fact that according to the 2010 census, Asians and Latinos are the fastest growing racial groups.

“People of color make up almost 70% of the New York population, but you wouldn't be aware of this fact if you went to a typical literary reading or opened most New York-based magazines," said Chen. “So what we want to do is to create a platform of editorial content that really affected what it means to be American or global citizen in the 21st century.”

Chen also emphasized the magazines’ inclusion of ethnicities other than Asian American. “We're trying to show that Asian American literature is for everyone, not just Asians and not just for immigrants,” he remarked. “We want to involve people who never thought of themselves as having anything to say about these topics.” (Such writers include Junot Díaz, Teju Cole, Dream Hampton, and Mike Davis.)

It’s certainly a change from AAWW’s earlier days. Ms. Park, who attended AAWW workshops at the turn of the century, said that then the demographic was more Asian Americans of older ages in their 30s and 40s.

“The APAJ [AAWW’s first publication] has been replaced by all this other stuff,” she said. “You can see this crowd out here, how diverse and hip it is. It’s reaching this urban hip audience it wasn’t able to before. It’s serving the community in fresh and good ways.”

By contrast, the group gathered last night was a bunch of hip young people, many of who were Ms. Park’s friends, former students or fans. The Queen of Queens, tan and dressed in a loose dress, seemed comfortable with the excited group milling about her to take pictures.

Famously awkward poet and writer Mr. Lin, on the other hand, did not.

Nibbling alternatively on a cucumber and on his nails, Mr. Lin said he had not written about Asian American issues.

So why was he here?

“That’s just because I’m a known Asian,” he said. “My work doesn’t cover identity.” Would it in the future? “I doubt it, but maybe.”

Meanwhile, the wooden frame of Mr. Salgado’s print machine churned up and down as fast as he could spread out the paper and the paint. Behind him the prints, featuring a portrait of his family, were disappearing almost before the pages floated to the floor.

“My parents are not criminals, they are courageous. So that’s why I made this image specifically—I want to give it away,” the artist, who focuses on the issue of identity in terms of immigration and sexuality, said.

“The issue of immigration is not just a Latino issue. I know a lot of students from the API who are undocumented. It’s important that we work together and use art,” he said. “I think that art can be used as a tool of empowerment for our community.”

The lady-filled crowd at the first annual VIDA fundraiser. (Photo: Jaclyn Rachel Green-Stock)

It was a regular, quiet Monday night of muted jazz and pool games in most of the bars down North 11th Street. The red brick warehouse of the Brooklyn Brewery, however, reverberated with the chatter of a 300-plus crowd, gathered in support of the first annual VIDA fundraiser, sponsored by Riverhead Books.

VIDA, a nonprofit organization that supports women in literary arts, was formed almost three years ago to tally up the inequalities between men and women authors and poets. The resulting statistics, called “The Count,” shook the publishing world by revealing the low percentage of female-authored published work--The New Republic, for instance, only published 78 women overall in 2010, compared to a whopping 344 men.

It’s not surprising, then, that most of the guests at the fundraiser were young women. “It’s like a Mt. Holyoke mixer with Emerson boys,” Sande Boritz Berger, whose writing career spans the last four decades, remarked.

The party was both for those involved in the literary scene and those who party on the fringes of it. It was for those like 24-year-old Libby Segal, an associate producer at Channel 25 thinking about eventually publishing a book about her project, “The Hobby Hoarder.” It was for people like Canadian Jane Hu, who simply came with friends. It was for Sam Ross and his boyfriend Pat Abatiell, who came in support of their former professor, poet and author Cate Marvin. They mixed with editors, from magazines and publishing industries such as Penguin and the New York Times.

It was almost a place for Ryan Gosling. Riverhead Books publicist and fundraiser organizer Jynne Martin revealed that they had tweeted an invitation to the face of the Internet meme “Feminist Ryan Gosling.”

“We had a whole Twitter campaign to try to make sure other men came. We were trying to get Ryan Gosling to come,” she said. “I’m afraid he didn’t reply to any of our anonymous tweets begging him to make an appearance.”

It was also a place for established writers like Meg Wolitzer, novelist and author of The Uncoupling. “My friends and I who were novelists…it went without saying that things were not right, that they were not equitable. But we didn’t have numbers behind it,” she said, remembering the days before VIDA’s Count.

Since its inception, VIDA has published more statistics on magazine bylines. When asked if she had noted any improvement Ms. Marvin, who is on VIDA’s executive board, shook her head.

“But we have had good news that some magazines have been counting themselves,” she added.

Jen Fitzgerald, who is in charge of The Count, also commented on the note of optimism. “We did Tin House for our first count, but not for our second count. But they got upset about that because they had actually made an effort to have more female writers, so they counted themselves and sent it to us,” she said.

Ms. Marvin also revealed that VIDA, which has been very much a grassroots movement, would start a membership program in January 2013.

“We want to generate revenue in order to create programs that really work,” she said.

“We want to formalize and build a real quality network for women writers,” said Jennine Capó Crucet, also a member of VIDA’s executive board.

“There are really exciting programs that we just need a way to support, and membership dues and things like that will go a long way towards providing us the things we’re excited about, like mentorship workshops for women who are interested in having one-on-one relationships with other artists. We also want membership so we can know what women writers want and need from us, so that we can respond in concrete ways to the things that we’ve shown through The Count.”

Ms. Crucet and Ms. Marvin remarked that there was some resistance to VIDA’s work. But the men present at the party were fully supportive of the The Count and the issues it represented.

Poet Timothy Donnelly, who was there with his wife, writer Lynn Melnick, said that those resistant to VIDA’s intentions needed to open up their perspective, and collect “not just a stable of men” as their writers.

Three poets—Nicholas Adamski, co-founder of the Poetry Society of New York; John Deming; and Matthew Yeager, curator of the KGB Monday Night Poetry Series—sat on one of the wooden benches, sipping their beers.

“We all work in organizations where we are partners with women,” said Mr. Adamski.

“Women brought us on into the world,” Mr. Yeager cut in.

“That’s fucking right!” exclaimed a girl next to him.

“It’s crucial to have an organization like this that have a check and balance,” interjected Mr. Deming.

“I mostly know of VIDA because of this watchdog function,” added Mr. Adamski. “We’re hopeful for a time when VIDA doesn’t have to be a watchdog, when it can just be an organization that champions women writers.

Amy Poehler on stage at 92Y. (Photo: Joyce Culver)

As Amy Poehler settled into her seat for her conversation with Caryn James in Kaufman Concert Hall and her fans screamed shrilly in ecstasy on Friday night, one of the few young men in the crowd raised his hands in a heart shape.

Ms. Poehler hearted him back.

The producer, writer and star of NBC’s Parks and Recreation praised and teased her friends and colleagues, reminisced about her different gigs and doled out advice, all peppered with her trademark humor.

About Tina Fey: “Tina has the most terrible singing voice…Yeah, I call her Betty. I think I’m the only one [to call her Betty]. I better be. I’m one of her many lovers.”

About her early years in comedy: “We were all so skinny and young,” she said, half wistful and half laughing. “When you’re young, you’re supposed to take big risks. That’s when you’re supposed to take them, because we don’t have kids, and we don’t have a mortgage, and we don’t have a lot of regret. Yet.”

About beginning at Saturday Night Live: “I started in September 2001, so it was this whole thing of, ‘Is comedy dead? Can we ever laugh again?” she said, allowing the room to sober momentarily in remembrance before breaking up the mood. “It was like, ‘Uh, how about yes?’”

About her infamous skit with Hillary Clinton: “I was pregnant at the time and I hadn’t told anybody that I was afraid I was going to throw up…but it was great. It’s always weird standing next to someone that you’re dressed like.”

Parks and Recreation fans will know that the sketch with Ms. Clinton wasn’t Ms. Poehler’s only foray into political comedy. (Spoiler alert: season 4 ended with her character Leslie Knope winning a city council seat in Pawnee.) When asked about her own perspective in politics, however, Ms. Poehler remained iffy.

“When people say, ‘Would you ever go into politics?’ I’m like, ‘No, the lighting is so bad,’ and two, I’m so lazy,” she said. “If I was in a presidential campaign my slogan would be ‘Well, hold on.’ I don’t know what that means, but I’d say that a lot.”

Ms. Poehler, who in a few weeks’ time will be filming the romantic comedy They Came Together with Paul Rudd and David Wain in New York City, continually emphasized how lucky she felt. “It’s a dream,” she repeated, in talking about Parks and Recreation and working with other skilled comedians and good scripts.

The night was certainly was a dream come true for Ms. Poehler’s fans.

“I wrote you a love letter,” said one girl as the crowd hooted and catcalled. “Can I read it to you?”

“Oh, yeah,” Ms. Poehler said, leaning forward. “Give it to me later but just read the first sentence.”

Even the questions submitted to Tumblr (or, as Ms. Poehler referred to it, “a 21-year-old Asian girl’s bedroom”) joined in on the love. Asked a certain “Kevin”: “What’s the easiest way to make Will Arnett cry?”

Ms. Poehler blinked. “Make love to him.”

From a user named “Talkdirtytoanimals”: “What’s your favorite song to make out to?”

“Oh, you know what’s my jam right now? That Usher song, ‘Climax’?” She nodded. “That song is sexy.”

And when she was younger?

“When I was a kid, there was not a lot of making out. But it probably was something very earnest, like ‘Open Arms’ by Journey. That was a good one.”

Sexy songs aside, Ms. Poehler took a moment to reflect on how her career has moved forward.

“You think something’s done, it’s the last chapter, and nothing will ever be as satisfactory,” she said when asked about how it felt leaving SNL. “But [Parks and Recreation is] something so satisfying, with a cast I’d take a bullet for and have sex with at the same time.”