SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

“My Beautiful Legacy” by Sasha Koladycz Brown

I may not be perfect but I can bake. I always try my best to understand people. I want people around me to feel happy, safe and scared. Because if you are never scared you do not care about yourself or people around you. I can be strong in ways no one knows. I can […]

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Ruth Dickey stands at a lectern speaking into the microphone while holding a piece of paper.

A Letter From Ruth

Dear Friends,  Thanksgiving has long been one of my favorite holidays. I love the stuffing and mashed potatoes, and I love an excuse to cook all day with the parade, and then the dog show, on in the background. This year we’ll all be having very different sorts of Thanksgivings—quieter and smaller as we hope […]

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Accepting Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s Oceanic Invitation by Sierra Nelson

As a special Thanksgiving treat, make your own poem-map of wonder with this lesson and writing prompt inspired by poet and author of World of Wonders, Aimee Nezhukumatathil! In celebration of our brand new SAL/on air podcast episode featuring Aimee’s May 2018 reading, Sierra Nelson—WITS Writer-in-Residence, cephalopod enthusiast, and author of The Lachrymose Report—takes us […]

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The SAL Gift Guide

We hope you enjoy this holiday gift guide, featuring picks from the staff at Seattle Arts & Lectures! With the usual emphasis on independent shops and literary-themed gifts for every budget, this year, we’re excited to feature largely BIPOC and women-owned businesses. (For more ideas, check out this small business search by Intentionalist.) Jam from Junebaby. “Food […]

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Connection: A WITS Intern Reflects on Event with Yaa Gyasi

Zoë Mertz is a University of Washington student doing a remote internship with the Writers in the Schools program at SAL. After attending the recent Literary Arts Series event with Yaa Gyasi on November 16, she wrote this reflective piece on attending events pre-Covid and what it’s like to attend online now. Read on to […]

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A Decade of Letterpress: Sarah Kulfan

Each year, in a project led by Sierra Nelson and Ann Teplick of Writers in the Schools, and the School of Visual Concepts, long-term patients from Seattle Children’s Hospital and a team of letterpress artists join forces to create an extraordinary collection of handprinted, limited-edition broadsides. These works of art—which you may have oohed and […]

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Where We Go From Here: A WITS Intern Reflects on Event with Yamiche Alcindor

Akshaya Ajith, a high school student doing a remote internship with the Writers in the Schools program at SAL, attended SAL’s Journalism Series event with Yamiche Alcindor on November 10. Alcindor is the White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour. Read on to hear Akshaya’s reflections on truth, compassion, and connection—and what role they all play […]

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“Origin Story” by Lucia Santos

Born from island clay Red and wet, with eyes open Crawl to a garden Place me in a bed of ferns I grow, I am energy. I’ll tell you of my first time talking to a plant. Most was listening. I swam forever Because I could, and I had to. Water carried me. My fear […]

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Book Bingo 2020: Therapy for the Soul

By Liz Keenan, SAL Volunteer When SAL asked me to write a blog about 2020 Summer Book Bingo, I was more than thrilled to accept the challenge. As a volunteer for SAL, I was asked to do a roundup of all the participants’ comments and recommendations and was immediately struck by how much Book Bingo […]

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A Decade of Letterpress: Annabelle Larner

Each year, in a project led by Sierra Nelson and Ann Teplick of Writers in the Schools, and the School of Visual Concepts, long-term patients from Seattle Children’s Hospital and a team of letterpress artists join forces to create an extraordinary collection of handprinted, limited-edition broadsides. These works of art—which you may have oohed and […]

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