SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

Category: Ta-Nehisi Coates

“Black Courage” by Maven Gardner

Black Courage There are wolves in wolves clothing Telling the weak That the sheep are the ones to fear, You are that sheep baby boy. Courage runs in your blood, So you will be tapped into. We live in a world where the authority Shoots patterns into unarmed citizens We live with crisp folds in […]

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Writing “So Far Away”

When Ta-Nehisi Coates took the stage in 2015 to discuss his breakout memoir, Between the World and Me, as part of SAL’s Literary Arts Series, local folk musician and Bushwick Book Club artist Reggie Garrett was inspired to write a song based on the book, which has been called “a searing meditation on what it means […]

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“I Used To,” by WITS Student Joseph Hairston

I Used To I used to worry about my life: what will make me finally draw that smile, what makes me chase the dreams. But as soon as I hit high school, things weren’t as they seem. I sit and I kick rocks, try to do what my bible tells me to do, but I […]

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Introductions: Ta-Nehisi Coates

On October 29, SAL Executive Director Ruth Dickey introduced Ta-Nehisi Coates to the resounding applause of a sold-out crowd at McCaw Hall, for SAL’s 2015/16 Literary Arts Series. I first met Ta-Nehisi Coates 20 years ago, when we were two of the youngest members of WriterCorps, in Washington DC. WriterCorps placed writers in traditionally underserved communities […]

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How Will the Greatest African Superhero Handle Race in America? An Essay on Ta-Nehisi Coates

By Aaron Counts, WITS Writer-in-Residence This essay was first published on October 26, 2015 on LitHub, on the occasion of SAL’s program featuring Ta-Nehisi Coates in the 2015/16 Literary Arts Series. It was written by WITS Writer-in-Residence Aaron Counts. From the opening sentence of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s acclaimed memoir, Between the World and Me, we know his chief […]

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