SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

Category: 2017/18 Season

Required Reading: Ariel Levy

By Stephany Kim, SAL Intern As part of our Required Reading series, we share a list of three essential works from SAL’s featured writers. Up this time: The New Yorker journalist and nonfiction author, Ariel Levy. Levy’s original talk will be closing out our 2017/18 Women You Need to Know (WYNK) Series TOMORROW, Tuesday, May 15, at Benaroya’s Recital Hall at […]

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Required Reading: Viet Thanh Nguyen

As part of our Required Reading series, we share a list of three essential works from SAL’s featured writers. Up this time: Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar & author of The Sympathizer, Nothing Ever Dies, & The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen. In his recent New York Times opinion piece, Viet Thanh Nguyen—the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, […]

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WITS Voices: Coming Out Trans While Teaching

By Cody Pherigo, WITS Writer-in-Residence   I had the opportunity to come out as transgender in my classrooms this year, an action that was never on the table when I was in high school and still isn’t for students and teachers in most areas of the country. Seattle is special, sometimes. But, it is still […]

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“To Whisk the Moon,” by Audrey Papineau

To Whisk the Moon To whisk, to whisk, to whisk the moon To fly, to soar, to light up the moon, whoosh! Tap! Rattle tap tap! The tree, the tree, the tree under the moon. Try everything! To soar, to soar, to soar in the light! To fly, to whisk, to make light, whoosh! Tap! […]

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WITS Voices: Speaking rights in the writing classroom

By Alex Madison, WITS Writer-in-Residence   On one of the final days of my fall WITS residency, I stood before a full class of seventh graders, hurrying to push through my fiction lesson so students could experiment with the new skill on their own. So little time remained, and I wanted them to apply some […]

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“Palimpsest,” by Suh Young Choi

Palimpsest   2016 A large church sanctuary. In the past few weeks, it’s seen too much. New pastor since the last one left for Fayetteville. New youth minister, since he’s leaving for Cabot. New music minister, since this one left for Orlando. New organist, since she left for Alabama. The choir still sings. The orchestra […]

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WITS Voices: Writing Letters We May Never Send

By: Minh Nguyen, WITS Writer-in-Residence I teach high school juniors and seniors, and for one writing lesson, we focus on the epistolary format. I ask them to think of a person for whom they have very strong, likely mixed feelings, and to write a letter to them that is so honest they may not be […]

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Required Reading: Questlove

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 […]

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Madeleine Albright’s Warning

“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 […]

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“My Name” by Selome Daniel Girma

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 […]

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