SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

Category: 2017/18 Season

Bittersweet: Ending My Time with TOPS Fifth Grade

By Laura Gamache, WITS Writer-in-Residence The book said everything perishes The book said that’s why we sing -Gregory Orr Every WITS teaching residency has a beginning, middle and end, like the stories humans are wired to crave. As a primarily lyric poet, I tend to work with kids as if we’re outside the narrative arc […]

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“Mom,” by Namaka Auwae-Dekker

Mom, Today I was followed by every man who’s ever left us (again) Which is to say ghosts are hereditary Which is to ask who will my children carry in the echo of their ribcage? How much of me is in what is not here, How much of me is in what did not stay? […]

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5 Reasons to See Gregory Orr

We can think of many reasons to see the master of the short, personal lyric, Gregory Orr, at his Poetry Series event on Wednesday at McCaw’s Nesholm Family Lecture Hall—here are just five! Tickets will be available at the door; the box office opens at 6:00 PM. For their Sunday After SAL program, Open Books: A […]

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WITS Voices: Where the Place of Kindness Lives

By Jeanine Walker, WITS Writer-in-Residence As a poet, I love to play with words. When writing or revising a poem, I can spend hours switching out a single word or phrase in an attempt to get the exact right one. Despite this, I believe a poet’s business is not words, exactly. A poet’s job is […]

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In Search of an American Childhood: On Jesmyn Ward

By Rachel Edelman American legislators can’t seem to resist using impoverished children to slander and taunt the opposing political party. Forty-eight hours after Jesmyn Ward spoke for Seattle Arts & Lectures at Benaroya Hall, the U.S. Senate used a standoff over bare-bones protections for undocumented and uninsured kids—DACA and CHIP—to halt all “nonessential” work of […]

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That Ocean Inside Us

This season, SAL’s friends at Poetry Northwest are partnering with us to present reflections on visiting writers from our Poetry Series. Below, Washington State Poet Laureate Claudio Castro Luna gives us her insights on Gregory Orr’s poetry, exploring how the lyric form can bring catharsis in times of chaos and trauma. Gregory Orr will read as part of SAL’s […]

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Writing Alongside “Knoxville, Tennessee”

Today, the words and wisdom of legendary poet, Nikki Giovanni, will wow us at the first event in our 2017/18 Sherman Alexie Loves Series. Although the event is sold out, there will be a limited number of tickets available at the door. In this essay, WITS Writer-in-Residence Laura Gamache welcomes us into Nikki’s beautiful descriptions […]

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WITS Voices: Opening a Door to Gratitude

By Letitia Cain, WITS Writer-in-Residence & SAL Event Manager It’s a Scottish tradition to open the front door of your house at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve to welcome in the new year, then rush to open the back door to let go of the past year. It’s a way of ushering […]

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WITS Voices: To Be Writers!

By Matt Gano, WITS Writer-in-Residence I hate the word “lecture.” I’ve always considered teaching poetry as a “conversation.” I hope to learn along with my students by talking about creative ideas, to open space in the classroom to unpack concepts such as “writing from the body,” “poetry as an economy of language,” “write what you […]

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