A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
By Corinne Manning, WITS Writer-in-Residence The day after the election, I carried a tote-bag full of ferns, poetry by June Jordan, and a memoir in comics by Lynda Barry into the high school. To my students, I tried to introduce the idea of imagination, of finding ways to tap into their sensory experiences, even when the […]
By: Karen Finneyfrock, WITS Writer-in-Residence A few weeks ago, it snowed in Seattle! That’s a pretty exciting occurrence for inhabitants on the Puget Sound. Students got a snow day, followed by a late start. Since I was scheduled to teach in fourth grade classrooms at Lafayette Elementary, I knew I would need to work a […]
By Sierra Nelson, WITS Writer-in-Residence I first encountered Alice Notley’s work seeing her read in Seattle for the Rendezvous Reading Series cosponsored by Subtext. It was 1999. It was Hugo House, which had just barely hatched. I was in my mid-20’s, not even hatched, in my first larval year of an MFA, second year performing […]
On March 28, lauded social justice lawyer and author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, captivated a sold-out Benaroya Hall with his lessons in the “power of proximity” and hope. SAL Executive Director Ruth Dickey introduced Bryan as part of SAL’s 2016/17 Literary Arts Series. This event also celebrated the winners of SAL’s annual Elaine Wetterauer Writing Contest. […]
For Black Boys Delicate Black boy. Solider, plum painted spirit, deep rooted, dreamer. I can tell from the oceans on your bed that you’ve never been told you were beautiful. Mother didn’t remind you of rainbows in her malleable insides. She soaked you in songs but never self-love. Never explaining the pink hue of your […]
My Music Brings Joy to the World Long ago the creator saw there was only a lot of suffering and no joy and peace. This displeased the creator, so she unlocked her head and let the joy of the world out, but only a little, so there would be balance. The orb of joy became […]
By Imani R. Sims, WITS Writer-in-Residence 33 student eyes, all staring at the screen as Martin Luther King Jr. takes the podium: But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we […]
Last week, WITS Writer Daemond Arrindell shared a powerful poem with us written by Marylou Gomez, his partner teacher at South Lake High School. The whole SAL staff was moved by her words and the purpose they hold. As we try to balance on the fast-shifting political landscape, it seems more and more necessary, either […]
By Greg Stump, WITS Writer-in-Residence Most people who know William Steig’s work think of him as the creator of classic children’s books like Shrek and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. But in the mid-20th century, Steig created numerous picture books for adults: Persistent Faces, The Lonely Ones, The Rejected Lovers, and many others. Most of […]
Holy the first breath you take and the last exhale of your life, Holy the song stuck in your head, Holy from a hug to a kiss to love, Holy the new jeans you bought, Holy when you looked better in the picture, Holy from the speed talker to the stutterers, Holy the anger passing […]