A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
Butterflies Yesterday my name was dazzling diamond. Today my name is bright shiny star, soaring through the sky. Sometimes I am an empty house, a book with no pages. Strangers think my name is amusing charming rose. People don’t know I am silly princess, queen of art, dazzling mermaid, rough and tough. My real name […]
Henri Rousseau On the forest floor, the trees growing with bananas and peaches. A flower in the distance is as pink as a sunset flying away and the light blue and gray sky is like a fan trying to blow its way out of trouble. I’m telling you there is more to this jungle than […]
By Ann Teplick, WITS Writer-in-Residence Sleep in a field of salmon peonies. A rooftop with saxophone jazz. A sand dune with peacocks. All the warm night, sleep by the creek with its burble, the sheep with its fleece of charcoal, the sister who whispers “Let’s launch the canoe.” All the warm night. As a […]
Bathing in India Before I was a citizen of this country, I was a citizen of the bucket. Staring at the water right under my nose. I don’t believe I can fit. Lifting me up, my mom tells me it is the only way, my feet dangling centimeters above the bubbly water. An orange bucket […]
In My Own Underwater World Sometimes I feel like a fish in a tank in the jungle – out of place, silent while everyone is roaring, squawking respected in their hidden languages and I just sit there in my own underwater world I feel ignored, these animals drink my world while I breathe it as […]
By Clare Hodgson Meeker, WITS Writer-in-Residence Don’t ask kids what they want to be when they grow up but what problems do they want to solve. ―Jaime Casap, Google Global Education Evangelist On my first day of a nine-week residency with third graders at Whittier Elementary, I gathered the students on a bright throw rug […]
By Matt Gano, WITS Writer-in-Residence when the poems with long lines salted raw on page make you aware of your meat, mark them with an asterisk, for the sky she fills with ink Over the past year, fellow writer Aaron Counts and I have had the privilege of mentoring Seattle’s first Youth Poet Laureate (YPL), […]
By Nikkita Oliver, WITS Writer-in-Residence Sitting in a tiny interview room, Jeanine Walker asks me, “How do you feel about working with middle school students?” My gut instinct? “Oh, no way.” My professional interview response? “I prefer high school students.” The outcome: I am currently a writer-in-residence at Washington Middle School—and I love it! For […]
Meet Nichole Coates, SAL’s brand new WITS Program Associate! Passionate about supporting the talents, aspirations and abilities of youth from all backgrounds, she has spent the last several years teaching literacy, leadership and social emotional learning to youth in communities from Wisconsin to White Center. We asked Nichole five questions about her new role with WITS, how […]
By Imani Sims, WITS Writer-in-Residence It is Day Six in a ten-day intensive with middle school students who have the best examples of poetic devices: “What is a Metaphor?” A shy hand goes up and I call on them. “A comparison between two things not using like or as.” “Good! Can anyone give me an […]