SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

Category: 2019/20 Season

A golden ticket that says "lectures.org; 4-part Flex Pass" against a purple background, with a border of gold glitter spilling onto the image.

A Choose Your Own Adventure for the Holidays

In this Choose Your Own Adventure post, assume the role of our protagonist and make choices as to how to spend four Seattle Arts & Lectures vouchers! To play: start at the top and read until the first decision, then proceed to whichever number follows. The best part? Once you’re finished you can start back […]

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Lindy West, wearing a red ribbed sweater, holds her book "The Witches are Coming" at a lectern, and reads from it while gazing up into the audience.

Introductions: Lindy West

By Ruth Dickey, SAL Executive Director I bet each one of you in this room remembers the first time that you fell in love with Lindy West’s writing. Mine was her Guardian essay about her wedding—“My wedding was perfect—and I was fat as hell the whole time.” I can’t even remember how I found it […]

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Lindy West stands with her arm over the shoulder of a smiling young student reader. They're standing in front of a brick wall.

“Self-Portrait,” by Lucinda Gilbertson

A photo of a girl Rosy cheeked and round Hangs on a wall in my house Arms spread wide and welcoming The perfect picture of childhood Of tire swings And clam bakes And playing pretend She worries about birds and cats and worms Sits on her porch swing Listens to her dad play guitar Savoring […]

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Mary Ruefle gazes into the camera, head down, brows up, through her curly hair. Her navy blue blazer is decorated with a small pin.

Introductions: Mary Ruefle

By Rebecca Hoogs, SAL Associate Director Twenty-five years ago, I jumped into a pool in Switzerland and when I got out of the pool, I went about my business, i.e. my life for a while—maybe a half hour?—before I realized everything was blurry. I’d jumped in with my glasses on and when I went back, […]

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Lily Baumgart's profile is thrown into sharp relief against stage lights. Their hair is cropped short casts a shadow onto their cheek. They are wearing a yellow turtleneck with a wide-collared coat. A red SAL logo is behind the lectern where they're speaking.

“Dissection of a Western Kingbird,” by Lily Baumgart

Extinguish larynx, strung down neck & plucked from voice box, pulling out a sharp snap; I holler to the kingbird out of loneliness. Feathered body & beak yellowed with age, sleek wings broken in by many winters, his dead eyes, refusing to acknowledge. Measurements of clawed feet, the push of the scalpel into his full […]

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Nicholas Kristof has his arm over Sheryl WuDunn as they stand in front of a grey backdrop. Both are smiling.

Six Reads by Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Nicolas Kristof grew up on a cherry farm in rural Yamhill, Oregon, and it’s there that he and Sheryl WuDunn, his wife and co-writer, return in their latest reporting. In part, their book is about the lives of some of the children with whom Kristof grew up, about a quarter […]

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Amor Towles, in glasses and a bold blue suit, stands in the center of the picture, against a backdrop lit by multicolored, circular lights. He's smiling energetically and making direct eye contact.

Introductions: Amor Towles

By Ruth Dickey, SAL Executive Director A few years ago, everyone I knew began telling me about a book they absolutely adored and that I simply must read. But when I learned the book was about a Count who spends 30 years in a hotel in Moscow, I was first skeptical, and then outright resistant. […]

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Wei-Wei Lee, looking slightly over her shoulder, grins at the camera amid a black backdrop lit by multicolored, circular lights.

“cold hard marble truth,” by Wei-Wei Lee

It’s a mite hard to believe on nights like this that, somewhere, I have friends who aren’t dream-deep and snug in their beds, asleep, but may be dozing off in lecture with pens stuttering on notes; air conditioners humming furious against the peak afternoon heat. Harder still to believe, that while they scribble and we […]

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In this composite image, Mary Ruefle's black and white head shot on one side, with a copy of her book cover, Dunce, on the other side.

Readers as Aliens: Reading Mary Ruefle’s Poetry

On Thursday, November 21, 2019, Seattle Arts & Lectures will present a reading with Mary Ruefle at Broadway Performance Hall in Capitol Hill. Mary Ruefle has published over ten collections of poetry. Below, local writer Bianca Glinskas reveals three favorite Ruefle poems and what they tell us about the reader and the writer. By Bianca Glinskas […]

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Maia Pody stands in front of a blurred out background of a body of water, with boats behind her. She's looking down at a page she is reading aloud from.

YPL Ambassador Maia Pody Has Something to Say

Need to brighten up your Thursday afternoon? Nancy Guppy’s Art Zone brings us this video, beautifully shot by Vincent Pierce, of our 2019 Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador Maia Pody reading her poem “Foam.” Thank you to Nancy Guppy and Seattle Channel for making this possible, and to Maia for sharing her work!

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