SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

“A Guide to Darkness” by WITS Student Mars Park

Mars Park wrote this poem while a student at Hamilton International Middle School with WITS Writer-in-Residence Sara Brickman. Mars read this poem to open our SAL Presents event with Celeste Ng on October 17, 2022.    

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“Song I’ll Sing” by WITS Student Elisa Pérez

If you want … I will sing. If not … I will hum. If you’re sad, I’ll give you a beat. A song I’ll sing is my dream. It is something that belongs to me. It’s loud, even with no sound. It’s quiet when it’s loud. I don’t care if you don’t listen but this […]

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Introductions: Abdulrazak Gurnah

By Rebecca Hoogs, Executive Director It is now my immense pleasure to introduce Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah. We are here tonight to celebrate Gurnah’s tenth novel, Afterlives, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Literature almost exactly one year ago today, as well as to honor his long career in literature. Gurnah’s books have been […]

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“Poem” by WITS Student Aisha Muse

There’s a poem in this place a poem stronger than a steel cup a poem that races through your mind faster than a modern car There’s a poem in this place a poem so calm it feels like you’re sailing on the sea There’s a poem in this place a poem so wild it sounds like a rock […]

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“The Two Americas” by WITS Student Thewdros Shibeshi

For anyone who has been paying attention, There are indeed two Americas: There’s an America that’s a world of white racial resentment Where the Confederate flag proudly flies, Where monuments to traitors are to be revered, Where protesting racial injustice is an intolerable act of aggression, Where the words “Black Lives Matter” are considered words […]

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“Self-Portrait Poem” by WITS Student Miyabi Schorn

i have a body small and impatient, and feet that can jump, arms that can climb, fingers that can type, a head that can nod, my brown eyes that can see, and a great big imagination. Miyabi Schorn wrote this poem while a student at Lafayette Elementary School with WITS Writer-in-Residence Karen Finneyfrock. Miyabi read […]

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“Lived. Moved. Wanted. Got?” by Zora Sowinska

“Here” feels so lonely. The hands of a ghost who loved another ghost, the space between fingertips, the hall light under the door. Whispers that evaporate into thin air like an August creek. Ferns line the sidewalks and the trails, spores frequenting their undersides. In kindergarten, someone told me that those spores heal cuts, but […]

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“Odes to my birth” by WITS Student Quynh Nguyen

Three… two… one… just one more second, only one more for a present. Ever wonder about life and death? Love and birth; all rise up toward a newborn. A tear slightly drops down from sky: the sky of all lovings; universes, stars, galaxy, space and shadow of emotions. If I were a tiny piece of […]

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The Scribbles, the Rubbish, and the Mirrored Words

This essay is part of a series in which Seattle Arts & Lectures partners with Poetry Northwest to present reflections on visiting writers from SAL’s 2021/22 Season. On Thursday, April 7, Don Mee Choi will read and discuss her work with Stefania Heim at Hugo House, and the event will also be streamed live. Tickets are […]

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Introductions: Mira Jacob

By Rebecca Hoogs, Executive Director Every summer, the SAL staff choose a book by an upcoming author in our season to read and discuss together. And it was a special joy last summer, after a year and a half of Zoom, to climb down from the Zoom grid and to gather in a circle, in-person […]

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