A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
By Laura Burgher, Writers in the Schools & Broadsides Project Intern I placed the final broadside up on the bookstand and took a step back. Patrons at Seattle Public Library’s Northgate Branch were already starting to show interest, craning their necks to take in the twenty-two framed artworks I just set atop the bookshelves, their […]
The evening of Wednesday, November 18, SAL Director Ruth Dickey introduced acclaimed writer Anthony Doerr to a buzzing, brimming auditorium, at Benaroya Hall. Perhaps you, like me, were wary of All the Light We Cannot See. I picked it up because a friend recommended it and then was afraid to begin. A book about World […]
By Christina Gould, Patron Services Manager I shared “my boyfriend” with a sold out crowd at Benaroya Hall on November 18th. I would have been too shy to have a one-on-one date with him; being one of over 2500 in the cozy atmosphere of the S. Mark Taper Auditorium suited me just fine. I first became […]
Paris, Le Canal Saint-Martin Dark and silver clouds rule the sky over the dark winter city. The black bare trees reach for nothing and the murky water under the rusty iron bridge has no inhabitants. The streets have no wanderers and through the dark windows letting in the so-little sun into the dark rooms like […]
By Erin Langner, WITS Program Associate & Sonder Editor When Linda Pastan and I approached a classroom of The Center School, where she was about to speak, we were three minutes early. A teacher inside, in the gentlest, quietest whisper, asked if we wouldn’t mind waiting outside, for just two of those minutes. The students inside […]
By Emily Bedard, WITS Writer-in-Residence On a recent day when the trees flashed a hundred hues against a cloudy Seattle sky, I entered a fourth grade WITS class, planning to play with color. We began by reading Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce Sidman and Pamela Zagarenski, with its saturated, leaping language and its intricate, dreamlike […]
On November 10, Linda Pastan brought her quiet but powerful literary presence to McCaw Hall for SAL’s 2015/16 Poetry Series. SAL Associate Director Rebecca Hoogs introduced her and moderated their conversation that night. It is an honor and delight to introduce Linda Pastan, who is here to celebrate and read from poetry across her long career, including […]
On November 9, James McBride and The Good Lord Bird Band kept our toes tapping, hands clapping, and hearts full when they performed at Town Hall Seattle. SAL Executive Director Ruth Dickey introduced the band that rousing evening. If you had told me that I would read a funny book about slavery and John Brown’s raid […]
The Sea I kept deep-sea secrets in a little black bag. I carried boats through the toughest storms. I asked the fish where the shark lived. I was rough but calm. I was tired. I knew when the storm would come. I tried to keep the boats away with waterspouts. I tried to keep the […]
By Erin Langner, WITS Program Associate & Sonder Editor When the eight of us who work at Seattle Arts & Lectures gathered around our postage stamp-sized conference table one rainy afternoon, to brainstorm names for this blog, there wasn’t a clear choice. While other groups may find decisions by consensus a challenge because agreement is lacking, we found […]