Stephen Hawking demonstrates Relativity for National Poetry Day

Bridget Smith’s film of the physicist reading Sarah Howe’s poem is part of a star-studded project hoping to inspire readers to explore light through poetry

Physicist Stephen Hawking and actors Samantha Morton and Sean Bean have joined forces with leading artists to make a series of short films encouraging people to dispense with prose for a day and “make like a poet”.

Organisers of National Poetry Day are hoping to inspire readers to record their own creative responses to poetry, as part of a competition culminating with a display of the winning words, images and videos in the Blackpool Illuminations on Thursday 8 October 2015. This year marks the 21st anniversary of this annual celebration of poetry, with a week-long series of events all over the UK on the theme of light.