A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
This post was first featured on Literary Hub on April 15, 2016. You may find the original post here. How Teju Cole Helped Me Make Peace with the Nigerian Scam Artist: Ijeoma Oluo on Reconciling her Nigerian-American Identity These words, popping up on my twitter feed, were the words that endeared me to Teju Cole […]
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 […]
The Numbers There’s this tree I see every day I count every little baby bird one… two… three… four… perfect little birds I keep walking thinking about all the homework I have counting out every assignment
We’re excited to announce the launch of our Required Reading series, where we’ll be sharing a list of three essential works for each of SAL’s visiting writers. First up: Jacqueline Woodson, children’s author extraordinaire. Ursula K. Le Guin said of stories: “The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.” If you agree […]
Twelve fun links from around the web. For your Friday listening pleasure, Teju Cole has created a Spotify playlist of Nigerian music called Liquid Grooves of Lagos. While we’re at it, how beautifully eerie is his Flickr account? Jacqueline Woodson has her April reading picks up as Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet Laureate. What Station Eleven looks like to Eastern […]
By Katy E. Ellis, WITS Writer-in-Residence My first year as a WITS instructor, I handwrote each day’s plan in a small red notebook that I toted to the kindergarten classes at Broadview-Thomson K-8. This year, I referred back to those lessons and added new lessons to the notebook, which I carried like a security blanket to […]
“Ever since Daemond started coming to my third period class, I have found a healthy way to express my emotions and thoughts. I look forward to being taught by him every Friday and learning why writing poetry really matters.” These words come from a ninth-grade WITS student at Franklin High; they’re only a minute sampling of […]
By Justine Chan A few months after the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong, my family and I took our usual summer family trip there. For some bizarre reason, the travel package even threw in a free month-long stay at the gaudy Metropole Hotel, the “epicenter” of the SARS outbreak. And so, my parents stayed there […]
By Vicky Edmonds, WITS Writer-in-Residence Hearing the poetry of children has been one of the most meaningful experiences in my life. I am awestruck at getting to hear that kind of sincerity nearly every day. It’s why I remain a teaching artist after 26 years, even though it’s the most challenging work I’ve ever done. […]
On March 23, novelist Emily St. John Mandel delivered a thought-provoking lecture about civilization, art, and apocalypse at Town Hall Seattle for SAL’s 2015/16 Literary Arts Series. SAL Executive Director Ruth Dickey introduced her talk and moderated their conversation that evening. An incredible fever overtook the Seattle Arts & Lectures staff last summer – it […]