A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
the ones left behind i am the rocks you gathered and stuffed in your pocket the bubbles that escaped your mouth as you sunk to the bottom i am the faces they made when your body was dredged up from the lake the newspapers that told of your death bubbles escaped your mouth when you […]
By Gabriela Denise Frank When I watched Bitaniya Giday perform her poem, “Hyphenated Identity Crisis,” I didn’t know I would interview her. The video, which introduced Bitaniya as the 2020/2021 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate, was filmed outside on a breezy day rather than inside a dramatically-lit theater. Bitaniya read from her phone in front of […]
At the beginning of Washington State’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy order, WITS Writers-in-Residence Samar Abulhassan and Sierra Nelson began sending letters to one another, filled with their daily observations and feelings during the pandemic. Their correspondence sparked “Ocean Radish,” this collaborative writing project which we are delighted to share with you today, followed by more […]
We’re pleased to share a poem from one of our Writers in the Schools students to celebrate the “Buck Moon” or “Thunder Moon” that will accompany the Lunar Eclipse on the evening of July 4 (or the wee hours of July 5). Stella Hoffman Logan wrote this poem, “To the Moon,” as a 4th grader […]
Although we couldn’t share a reading from our Writers in the Schools student to open our 2019/20 Literary Arts Series event with Carol Anderson, we’re pleased to be able to share the poem “To Who I Think: I Want These Things to Stop” by Ebenezer Tewolde, a 5th grader at Leschi Elementary School, written with WITS […]
Hyphenated Identity Crisis And the American war machine takes on the motherland And I finally am no longer A hyphenated identity crisis See the words Ethiopian-American Imply me a patriot for the casualty of war they make out of my birthplace We diaspora longed to find home on the winning Side, in exchange our […]
My Wishes I wish I had my new heart and could leave the hospital. I wish all my friends would not be sick or hurt or bullied or punched. I wish I didn’t have what I have right now. I wish no animals would get hurt. I wish no one would do crimes or heists […]
By Rebecca Hoogs, SAL Associate Director It is bittersweet to introduce Rick Barot to you in this medium. This event was originally scheduled for March 15 to launch his new book, his fourth book, The Galleons, into the world. And though May finds us still floating on our own, we are very glad to deliver […]
Convolution Graphite stains my fingertips. From time spent drawing when I should be thinking. How could I, though? When deep purple stares from beneath my eyes. Time is spent drawing when I should be thinking. Doodles of people, with perfect hair and perfect smiles. Deep purple stares from beneath my eyes. I wish I was […]
By Gabriela Denise Frank Poetry tills the soil of our hearts. By till, I mean cultivate. By cultivate, I mean poetry works the earth of our humanity. By work, I mean it disturbs the fallow routines of everyday life. Poetry breaks the crust of habit. It loosens old roots, amends the spirit with language, imagery, […]