Lindy West

Jenny Jimenez

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Women You Need to Know

Lindy West

Past Event: Tuesday, November 26, 2019

At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall

Lindy West is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and the author of the bestselling memoir Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman (2016), as well as the upcoming essay collection The Witches Are Coming (2019). In 2018, she adapted Shrill as a half-hour comedy for Hulu, which has received glowing reviews.

West is known for her bold, funny, and often deeply personal writing that aims to cancel shame from the daily dialogue of women, especially fat women.

Born and raised in Seattle, West went from writing snarky, sharp pieces in The Stranger to publishing her work in Jezebel, The Guardian, GQ, and Cosmopolitan. Her time at The Stranger is best known for her body positive essay “Hello, I am Fat” and her film review of Sex and the City 2, which went viral in 2010. Now, West is moving away from the searing satire of her 20s. In an interview with The Cut, West explains her “work, and her thinking, have gotten more sophisticated over the years.”

West writes side-by-side with Samantha Irby and Aidy Bryant, of SNL fame, on Shrill. “We’re going to make the show that we needed when we were younger,” West said of the series, which will release its second season in 2020. Shrill, according to Slate, has “more radical things to say about what it’s like to be fat in America” than any of the current shows on television.

West, who sat down with a particularly nasty Internet troll on a memorable episode of This American Life, left the Twiter-sphere to eliminate harassment and negativity from her life. She is the founder of I Believe You, It’s Not Your Fault, an advice blog for teens, as well as the co-founder of the reproductive rights destigmatization campaign #ShoutYourAbortion.

Angela Garbes, who will be moderating the Q&A portion of our event with West, is journalist and the author of Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy, which was named an NPR Best Book of 2018. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine‘s The Cut, and featured on NPR’s Fresh Air. She is a former staff writer at Seattle newsweekly The Stranger and lives with her family on Beacon Hill.

Event Details

Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall

1119 8th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101

View directions.

Know Before You Go

Don't have your tickets?

Most tickets have been emailed, so be sure to check your inbox for an email from boxoffice@lectures.org. Call us at 206-621-2230 x10 if you can’t find them.

Have a question for the speaker?

Want to ask Lindy West something? Send your question to SAL’s Associate Director at rahoogs@lectures.org—it might be asked onstage!

Books

WYNK Series and Create-Your-Own Series subscribers receive a copy of The Witches Are Coming. You should receive a West Book Ticket with your admission ticket. Exchange this ticket at the book tables located at the main entrance to Town Hall before or after the event.

Note: Student/U25 & complimentary subscriptions do not receive a book.

Third Place Books will have copies of West’s work available for purchase at their table in the hall.

Patrons & Grand Patrons, you're invited to Happy Hour!

Patrons & Grand Patrons, join us for light bites and wine in the Reading Room at Town Hall from 6:30 to 7:15.

Transportation & Parking

Town Hall Seattle is centrally located at 1119 8th Ave, on the corner of 8th and Seneca. Their venue is served by frequent bus routes, is near access to light rail stations, and close to a number of parking options nearby. Please see their website for more details.

Accessibility

Open Captioning is an option for people who have hearing losses, where a captioning screen displaying the words that are spoken or sung is placed on stage. To make a request for open captioning, please contact us at boxoffice@lectures.org or 206.621.2230×10. Please note: for in-person events at Town Hall Seattle, we appreciate a two-week advance notice to allow us time to secure captioning services. 

Closed Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where captioning displays the words that are spoken or sung at the bottom of the video for online events. Captioning is available for all online events; click the “CC” button to view captions during the event.

Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs) are devices that people with hearing loss use in conjunction with their hearing device (hearing aids or cochlear implants). Town Hall Seattle has a hearing loop system, so you can switch your T-coil hearing aid to telecoil to have the stage’s microphones transmitted directly to your hearing aids. To pick up a headset, check in with any Town Hall usher when you arrive.

Sign Language Interpretation is available upon request for Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing individuals. To make a request for interpretation, please contact us at boxoffice@lectures.org or 206.621.2230×10, or select “Sign Language Interpretation” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process and we will contact you to confirm details. Please note: we appreciate a two-week advance notice to allow us time to secure interpretation.

Wheelchair Accessible Seating and Accessible Restrooms are available in all sections at Town Hall Seattle, which is fully accessible to ticket holders with physical mobility concerns. Town Hall Seattle recommends that visitors use the 8th Avenue Entrance for events in the Great Hall, and elevators with Braille signage go to all levels within the Hall. The venue has all-gender, ADA-accessible restrooms on the lobby and Forum level. To reserve seating for a specific mobility concern, please contact us at boxoffice@lectures.org or 206.621.2230×10, or select “Wheelchair Accessible or Alternative Seating Options” during ticket checkout, and we will contact you to confirm details. For more details on accessibility features at Town Hall, click here.

Guide and service dogs are welcome.

All-gender restrooms are available.

We are pleased to offer these accessibility services at our venues, and they are provided at no additional cost to ticket holders. Please contact us with any questions and feedback about how we can be more accessible and inclusive. Our Patron Services Manager is available at boxoffice@lectures.org, or Tuesday-Friday, from 12 noon–5 p.m., at 206.621.2230×10.

For more accessibility information, please head to lectures.org/accessibility. If you would like to make accessibility arrangements you do not see listed here, please contact our box office or select “Other Accommodations” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process, and we will contact you to confirm details.

Sponsors

Novella Sponsor
Marjorie Restaurant
Essay Sponsor