A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
By Stephany Kim, SAL Intern Recognize Questlove, the drummer with the signature afro pick on The Tonight Show, but don’t know much about him? Well, grab your earbuds, groove out to the Grammy Award-winning band The Roots, and check out this “Required Reading” to get ready for Questlove’s event tomorrow night at Washington Hall, where he’ll […]
“Why has international momentum toward democracy slowed, and why are so many charlatans seeking to undermine public confidence in elections, the courts, the media?” This is the urgent question voiced by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Fascism: A Warning, who will be speaking on Apr. 24 at The Paramount Theatre. The book is not only a sage examination […]
My Name Yesterday my name was Engineer Selome. Today my name is Dr. Selome. “Hi, Engineer Selome,” they say as I keep on building as an artist who can’t get distracted. I love being called Dr. Selome. I love helping people. Tomorrow I will be an adventurist, love going different places. No one knows where […]
By BreAnna Girdy, WITS Intern On Friday, March 30th, Laura Lippman and David Simon spoke to a crowd of over twenty students at Garfield High School as part of our Writers in the Schools program. With collective expertise in journalism, both Lippman and Simon offered a broad perspective into the writing world; they were able […]
Breaking Rules Do not litter unless you are in the middle of the desert and a giant army of camels with hammers is chasing you and the speed limit is at 5 percent. In this case you should go over the speed limit to at least 50 percent and you will drive away empty-handed. Do […]
By Corinne Manning, WITS Writer-in-Residence I got to work with the students the day after the March for Our Lives School walkout. It was exciting to see news of Roosevelt High School on Twitter, and I went into class wondering what the students would need most. I wanted to provide them an opportunity to write […]
By Kathleen Flenniken, WITS Writer-in-Residence This fall, I’ve been teaching poetry to fourth graders at View Ridge Elementary in Seattle. Each week before I share the poem that will be our mentor text, I show my students a photograph of the poet and offer a few words about the poet’s concerns, life, and times. In […]
Attention all young poets, rappers, leaders, and activists, ages 14-19 and living in Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region! Are you interested in representing the city as the 2018/19 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate? WITS is now accepting applications for this year’s Youth Poet Laureate, which will be open from March 23 – April 23, 2018. […]
By Daemond Arrindell, WITS Writer-in-Residence The mentor texts used in my classes are usually quite diverse, with the intention of reflecting the demographics of the students, as well as countering the lack of representation of writers of color in the academic canon. As such, the students I work with are exposed to more than just […]
By Gabrielle Bates Anastacia Renée: “Do you feel free on the page?” Tyehimba Jess: “I feel opportunity.” * Seeing and hearing Tyehimba Jess read from his Pulitzer-Prize winning collection Olio at SAL two weeks ago has me rethinking every parameter and practice I’ve ever accepted as fixed. The expansive, acrobatic, mechanical wonder of Jess’s syncopated […]