December 7, 2015
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 […]
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December 2, 2015
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 […]
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November 30, 2015
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 […]
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November 24, 2015
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 […]
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November 23, 2015
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 […]
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November 23, 2015
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 […]
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November 20, 2015
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 […]
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November 19, 2015
The Hymnal I am the hymnal and I have heard prayers. You call them prayers, I call them hopes Of a mother who drank away her youth. I call them music of a man with smoke in his lungs And magic in his hands I catch the tears of the desperate, I hear the skepticism […]
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November 19, 2015
On the very rainy Saturday, November 7th, SAL Executive Director Ruth Dickey introduced the charismatic Drew Barrymore, who brightened the evening with her stories and words at the Center for Spiritual Living. Barrymore was joined on stage by director and actor Lynn Shelton, who moderated their conversation. If you are like me, you fell in love with […]
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November 18, 2015
By Erin Langner, WITS Program Associate A few moments before we opened the doors to Town Hall on November 9th, a small swarm of SAL staff hurried through the lobby, in search of a company credit card. Normally, the quiet calm of an empty venue and a row of tidy check-in stations descends during this […]
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