SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

On Ross Gay and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

By Gabrielle Bates I feel like a different type of tenderness might be emerging.—Ross Gay When Ross Gay read for the SAL Poetry Series last week, it was exactly what I needed. I dare say it was exactly what we all needed. All of us streaming into that auditorium from the cold—carrying our bodies quickly, […]

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WITS Voices: Teaching William Steig

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 […]

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Helen Macdonald at Benaroya Hall: A Comic

By Greg Stump, WITS Writer-in-Residence This amazing comic was created by WITS Writer-in-Residence Greg Stump after he attended SAL’s Literary Arts Series lecture by memoirist, nature writer, and falconer Helen Macdonald on February 1, 2017. Thank you, Greg!

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“Untitled Tags,” by Joseph Hairston, Seattle Youth Poet Ambassador

Untitled Tags Rest in Peace to Mike Brown 17-year-old graduate shot down In the middle of the street For a swisher sweet Complete chaos no peace When will we reach that day That day we don’t see color That day where we can all call each other sisters and brothers All across the globe we […]

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A SAL Love Story: Dana & John

Forget Tinder—from friendships to loveships, SAL’s been bringing folks together for almost thirty years now through good books and good conversation. That why, this Valentine’s Day, we’re featuring one couple – Dana Bettinger and John Jacobs – who have been long-time friends of SAL. We asked them to share their SAL love story, including what role reading […]

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“Holy” by WITS Student Abdullahi Mohamed

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 […]

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WITS Voices: An Alternative to Alternative Facts

By Jeanine Walker, WITS Writer-in-Residence By the time this post is published, we will have endured several tens of other injustices, threats on our freedoms, and evasions from the new presidential administration, and the idea of “alternative facts” will, I imagine, be filed under the Folder of Growing Insanities—which is to say, not quite forgotten […]

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WITS Voices: We Deal in Magic

By Matt Gano, WITS Writer-in-Residence There’s real magic flying from the fingertips of the young poets at The Center School. We speak in terms of allusion in terms of empathy and connectivity. We cast spells in misspelled text and bend symbols of meaning to tease reality. We deal in magic as poets, as writers, as […]

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“Hemlockwing,” by Cordelia Christian

Hemlockwing In my sleeping, midnight wings unfold they are ragged, dusty, like the silencing cobwebs that stir in my breath the darkness is my mooring my ship is the resurrection of a lost dream though that heart was long ago discarded still beating arms ornamented with red-brown feathers mottled with blood I am the sparrow, […]

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WITS Voices: Simple and Complex

By Nikkita Oliver, WITS Writer-in-Residence We find ourselves in the midst of hard times. They are nuanced and complex and yet simple all at once. Most of us can agree hate is not a valid political platform. This part is simple. Nonetheless, we are confronted with a new administration who seems to prefer hate and […]

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