SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

Category: 2017/18 Season

“Black Courage” by Maven Gardner

Black Courage There are wolves in wolves clothing Telling the weak That the sheep are the ones to fear, You are that sheep baby boy. Courage runs in your blood, So you will be tapped into. We live in a world where the authority Shoots patterns into unarmed citizens We live with crisp folds in […]

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Five Reasons to See Reza Aslan

We can think of many reasons why you should join SAL on Tuesday, November 14 to hear Reza Aslan, acclaimed scholar of religions and bridge-builder between faiths, present an original multimedia lecture on humanity’s struggle to make sense of the divine. Here are our top five: By: Emmy Newman, SAL Intern 1. He doesn’t play spiritual […]

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Lily Baumgaurt, at a WITS summer camp class, smiles while paused mid-writing, young writers in the background.

What’s It Like Being Youth Poet Laureate, Anyway?

By: Lily Baumgart, 2017-18 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate Simple answer: amazing. When I was announced as the 2017/18 Youth Poet Laureate, I was in shock. My uncle had taken a video of Matt Gano announcing the winner and for days afterwards I’d watch that video over and over, making sure that it was my name […]

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WITS Voices: An Exercise in Identity

By Danny Sherrard, WITS Writer-in-Residence The subject of the exercise is identity, and I’ve heard scary stories. The idea: to bring up themes like race and gender using you (the teaching artist) as the lab rat on the first day of class. What happens is you ask, Who am I? or, What do you know about […]

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Writing “So Far Away”

When Ta-Nehisi Coates took the stage in 2015 to discuss his breakout memoir, Between the World and Me, as part of SAL’s Literary Arts Series, local folk musician and Bushwick Book Club artist Reggie Garrett was inspired to write a song based on the book, which has been called “a searing meditation on what it means […]

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“You Do Not Have To Be The Moon,” by Emrys Foster

You Do Not Have To Be The Moon You do not have to be the moon. You do not have to follow the sun always in its footsteps you do not have to take fleeting breaths of cold clear nothing through deep craters like gills you do not have to shed a light on those […]

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Introductions: Stephanie Burt

On Monday, October 9, at McCaw Hall, the electrifying Stephanie Burt read us poems from her latest, Advice from the Lights, schooled us on indie rock, and gave us some stellar new reading recommendations to stack our shelves with. SAL Associate Director Rebecca Hoogs introduced and interviewed Stephanie for this event, which opened SAL’s 2017/18 […]

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5 Reasons to See A.E. Stallings

We can think of many reasons why you should join SAL to hear A.E. Stallings – formalist poet and translator who’s joining us all the way from Greece – as part of our Poetry Series on November 13, but here are our top five . . . By SAL Intern, Lucienne Aggarwal 1. She lives among […]

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“All You Ever Wanted Was A Semyon to Hold,” by Semyon Kiyan

All You Ever Wanted Was A Semyon To Hold After Anastacia Reneé All you ever wanted was a Semyon to hold Why do you always have to be there for your little sister? Why did you get yourself into this? Don’t you dare be transgender Don’t you dare get hurt because you care Don’t you […]

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Like Sand, and Solid Ground

This season, our friends over at Poetry Northwest are partnering with us to present reflections on visiting writers from the SAL Poetry Series. Below, read an excerpt of Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s review of Advice from the Lights, Steph Burt’s latest collection. Steph will open SAL’s Poetry Series at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, October 9 at McCaw Hall, Nesholm Family Lecture […]

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