A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
On November 9, James McBride and The Good Lord Bird Band kept our toes tapping, hands clapping, and hearts full when they performed at Town Hall Seattle. SAL Executive Director Ruth Dickey introduced the band that rousing evening. If you had told me that I would read a funny book about slavery and John Brown’s raid […]
The Sea I kept deep-sea secrets in a little black bag. I carried boats through the toughest storms. I asked the fish where the shark lived. I was rough but calm. I was tired. I knew when the storm would come. I tried to keep the boats away with waterspouts. I tried to keep the […]
By Erin Langner, WITS Program Associate & Sonder Editor When the eight of us who work at Seattle Arts & Lectures gathered around our postage stamp-sized conference table one rainy afternoon, to brainstorm names for this blog, there wasn’t a clear choice. While other groups may find decisions by consensus a challenge because agreement is lacking, we found […]
The Hymnal I am the hymnal and I have heard prayers. You call them prayers, I call them hopes Of a mother who drank away her youth. I call them music of a man with smoke in his lungs And magic in his hands I catch the tears of the desperate, I hear the skepticism […]
On the very rainy Saturday, November 7th, SAL Executive Director Ruth Dickey introduced the charismatic Drew Barrymore, who brightened the evening with her stories and words at the Center for Spiritual Living. Barrymore was joined on stage by director and actor Lynn Shelton, who moderated their conversation. If you are like me, you fell in love with […]
By Erin Langner, WITS Program Associate A few moments before we opened the doors to Town Hall on November 9th, a small swarm of SAL staff hurried through the lobby, in search of a company credit card. Normally, the quiet calm of an empty venue and a row of tidy check-in stations descends during this […]
I Used to Be a Small, Thin Bone I used to be a sloppy flower afraid to take bloom, but now I seem to walk the clouds, ruling over all that crushed me. I seem to be a small, thin bone too shy to find myself, but really I am a fluffy dragon filled with […]
I Used To I used to worry about my life: what will make me finally draw that smile, what makes me chase the dreams. But as soon as I hit high school, things weren’t as they seem. I sit and I kick rocks, try to do what my bible tells me to do, but I […]
By Amelia Peacock, SAL Community Engagement Coordinator In one of A. A. Milne’s most iconic stories featuring everyone’s favorite “bear of very little brain,” Pooh and his best friend Piglet spot what they think are Heffalump tracks in the snow on one of their many walks in the woods. They begin tracking this mysterious, elusive […]
On October 29, SAL Executive Director Ruth Dickey introduced Ta-Nehisi Coates to the resounding applause of a sold-out crowd at McCaw Hall, for SAL’s 2015/16 Literary Arts Series. I first met Ta-Nehisi Coates 20 years ago, when we were two of the youngest members of WriterCorps, in Washington DC. WriterCorps placed writers in traditionally underserved communities […]