Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series

Examples of Northwest Coast art appear in museums and collections throughout our region, but what does it mean when there is no word for “art” in the language of the people who created it? How might the Indigenous definition of art be far more expansive — demonstrating rich kinship connections and manifesting spiritual power — than a non-Indigenous framework? For anyone who regularly engages with art, these are compelling questions of accountability and cultural respect. In Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast, coeditors Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse and Aldona Jonaitis considered how Northwest Coast art is inseparable from its communities, demonstrating kinship connections, manifesting spiritual power, and far beyond. Together with over a dozen other contributors, the book brings Indigenous understandings of art to the foreground, recognizing its rich context and historical erasure within the discipline of art history. Aiming to “unsettle” Northwest Coast art studies, the collection of essays center

Jonathan Galassi is an acclaimed poet, translator, and longtime publisher at Farrar, Straus and Giroux who has built a life around the art of language. His poetry, described as “direct and plain-spoken,” by The New York Times, is known for illuminating the human experience and its multitudes, from nature and fatherhood to love and partnership. In addition to poetry, Galassi is a novelist. His newest book, School Days, asks fundamental questions about love and sex, friendship and rivalry, desire and power, and the age-old dance of benevolence and attraction between teacher and student. In School Days, Sam Brandt is a long-term resident of Connecticut’s renowned Leverett School. As an English teacher, he has dedicated his life to providing his students with the same challenges, encouragement, and sense of possibility that helped him and his friends become themselves at the school half a lifetime ago. When Sam is asked to help investigate a charge involving the abuse of one of his former classmates by a teacher

Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a prolific writer, passionate speaker, multicultural educator, and activist on Asian Pacific American issues. In her new collection of essays, You Cannot Resist Me When My Hair Is in Braids, she navigated the space between cultures and reflects on lessons learned from both Asian American elders and young multiracial children. It’s a rich space, filled with linguistic nuance that Wang so deftly weaved throughout her writing. In the aftermath of a messy divorce, Wang writes in hope of beginning to build a new life with four children, bossy aunties, unreliable suitors, and an uncertain political landscape. Her essays are peppered with a wide range of topics, including cooking food to show love, surviving Chinese School, being an underpaid lecturer, finding love in a time of elections, crying with children separated from their parents at the border, charting the landscape of frugal/hoarder elders during the pandemic, witnessing COVID-inspired anti–Asian American violence while reflecting o

When the Hart-Celler Act passed in 1965, opening up U.S. immigration to non-Europeans, it ushered in a whole new era. But even to the first generation of Asian Americans born in the U.S. after that milestone, it would have been impossible to imagine that sushi and boba would one day be beloved by all, that a Korean boy band named BTS would be the biggest musical act in the world, that one of the most acclaimed and popular movies of 2018 would be Crazy Rich Asians, or that we would have an Asian American Vice President. Not to mention the creators, performers, entrepreneurs, and influencers making it all happen, both behind the scenes and on the screen. And then there are the activists and representatives who continue to fight for equity, building coalitions and defiantly holding space for Asian American voices and concerns. And still: Asian America is just getting started. Authors Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, and Philip Wang offered a love letter to and for Asian Americans in RISE — a scrapbook of voices, emotions, a

Growing up as an autistic and legally blind person, actor Mickey Rowe was told that he couldn’t be a part of the mainstream world. As Rowe navigated adulthood, he was ignored and misunderstood by classmates and colleagues, infantilized by theatre directors, and even barred from earning minimum wage, all because he is autistic. But for Rowe, the structure and repetition of theatre productions made sense — after all, he spent his entire life acting to pass as neurotypical. In 2017, Rowe became the first openly autistic actor ever to play any autistic role in a professional performance setting, taking on the lead role of Christopher Boone in the Tony Award-winning play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Today, Rowe is a prolific performer and speaker, a husband and father, and the author of Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor’s Journey to Broadway’s Biggest Stage. Together at Town Hall with writer Laurie Frankel, Rowe discussed his new book and how the things that make us different can turn

It’s no surprise that fair, equitable, and respectful practices bolster engagement and motivation in the workplace. Being inclusive is, quite simply, the right thing to do. But we’re notoriously bad at it. Why? As Ruchika Tulshyan explained in her new book, Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work, inclusion doesn’t just happen: it takes attention, awareness, and regular practice. It takes real work, and there isn’t a simple 5-step plan for building a suddenly and permanently inclusive organization. But we can make regular progress toward inclusion and diversity, starting now. Tulshyan took us to the specific intersection of gender and racial bias, as experienced by women of color in the workplace. She explained the importance of using leadership privilege for good by exposing bias (women of color have more to lose by speaking up), and why the popular concept of “leaning in” doesn’t work (but dismantling structural bias does). Tulshyan offered best practices

We Need a Reckoning is a deeply powerful collection of poetry, essays, and memoir by women and non-binary people of color in the Tacoma, Washington area. Organized into five parts — wind, soil, water, sky, and breath – and featuring creative writing by thirty-one contributors, the collection is simultaneously a rallying cry for the land and people we build our homes in; a spell for strength and safe passage through tribulation; and a celebration of the power and brilliance of women. In a panel discussion moderated by Blue Cactus Press publisher Christina Vega, contributors Krista Pérez, Katharine Threat, Lydia K. Valentine, and Jesi Hanley Vega discussed their work, performed readings from We Need a Reckoning, and invited questions from audience members. Panelists Krista Pérez, founder and president of the Tacoma Women of Color Collective (TWCC), has spent the bulk of her education and career learning and prioritizing anti-racist, equitable, and community-centered work. Her multi-disciplinary perspective all

Elizabeth Cady Stanton is a famous suffragette who demanded a woman’s right to vote. Margaret Sanger was a sex educator who popularized the term “birth control” and helped establish the precursor of Planned Parenthood. Sheryl Sandberg is the COO of Facebook and has told women to pursue their dreams by leaning in. They’re all celebrated feminists. However, they fought for the few, not the many. In The Trouble with White Women, author Kyla Schuller argued that white feminist politics dispossess the most marginalized people to liberate themselves. Schuller proposed that the only way to have true feminism is through intersectionality. To achieve true feminism, the fight for it has to be in tandem with racial, economic, sexual, and disability justice. Schuller profiles lesser-known Black, Indigenous, Latina, and trans activists who are addressing these issues through a different lens. The shortcomings are many and the goals have yet to be reached. Kyla Schuller is Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexual

The best-selling Boeing 737 plane took its first commercial flight in 1968. Since then, the aircraft has been updated and modified across four generations; the most recent being the 737 MAX, officially put into service in 2017. Not long after, in 2018 and 2019, two tragic crashes resulted in the deaths of 346 people, and flights of the 737 MAX were grounded for nearly two years. Today, with design revisions and additional training and maintenance requirements mandated by the FAA, the planes are again taking flight. In his new book, Flying Blind, investigative journalist Peter Robison claimed that there’s more to the story. He probed deeper into what went wrong through exclusive interviews with current and former employees of Boeing and the FAA, industry executives and analysts, and family members of the crash victims. In conversation with Seattle Times journalist Dominic Gates, Robison discussed business culture and how it can threaten both industries and lives. Peter Robison is an investigative journalist f

In 1962, Summit Magazine tantalized readers with a tale of the Riesenstein peaks, a majestic (and untamed) mountain range in British Columbia. The article described the lofty granite walls and wondered allowed who would be the first to attempt to climb it. If you’ve never heard of the Riesenstein peaks, it’s because they don’t exist. Three mountaineers crafted the hoax as an exercise in geographic mis-information, and it inspired a quest for a North American Shangri-La. Her new book Imaginary Peaks details the cartographical mystery of the Riesenstein Hoax within the larger context of climbing history. In conversation with Seattle Met’s Allison Williams, she detailed the seemingly endless quest, within the climbing community, for newly discovered peaks and claims of first ascent. Katie Ives is a renowned writer in international climbing community. In 2016 she received the H. Adams Carter Literary Award from the American Alpine Club. She has participated in the Banff Mountain and Wilderness Writing Program an

Town Hall is thrilled to once again partner with Gage Academy of Art to bring audiences a series of talks that explore the remarkable creative work of four Washington artists. Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo of Lead Pencil Studio are known for building entirely new worlds that explore the limits of physical space and challenge human perception. Conducted at an architectural scale, their interdisciplinary work incorporates sculpture, photography, writing, drawing, and beyond. One of their most recent and easily-accessed works can be encountered while doing an everyday task: catching the train. Deep below the streets of the new University District Link light rail station, Lead Pencil Studio’s 300-foot-long sculpture, Fragment Brooklyn, reflects elements of historic city architecture from around the globe. Windows, fire escapes, and rooftops bring the outside in, while video screens rotate through vignettes of nature, apartment and student life, and historical events from the U-District area. Together with Gage Ac

The human face is a marvel. Just try to imagine the map of information contained in its creases and folds: the face holds stories of history, heritage, and emotion. Yet, despite the reverence deserved by such a wondrous bit of human biology, there are countless ways to try and “fix” faces. Digital filters smooth and blur; surgical procedures tighten, remove, and shape in a quest to defy time. Why? Filmmaker and author Justine Bateman examined the aggressive ways that society reacts to the aging of women’s faces in her book Face: One Square Foot of Skin. Drawing from her own experiences and interviews with nearly 50 women, Bateman recounted their stories through fictional vignettes to explore what it is that causes society to view women’s aging faces as undesirable and invisible. She explored ageism and rejects the assumption that faces need fixing in the first place, suggesting that it’s high time to move on from judging people’s worth based on the appearance of their face. Justine Bateman is a director, prod

Alex Tizon (1959-2017) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who built a career telling the stories of people at the margins. The underdogs. The forgotten ones. Everyday people. Immigrants, criminals, and folks on the fringe. Tizon believed that every human had a story to tell; they only needed to be invited to share it. In Invisible People: Stories of Lives at the Margins, Tizon’s friend and former colleague, Sam Howe Verhovek, brought his stories together in a deeply human collection of work. Tizon had a knack for illuminating the stories of people typically hidden from view. From UFO-tracking outliers to immigrants from Cambodia and Laos, Verhovek brought such tales together to paint a rich and empathetic picture of humanity. Included is one of Tizon’s most important and controversial stories, which appeared on the cover of The Atlantic just months after his death in 2017. “My Family’s Slave” offered a painful and personal account of Eudocia “Lola” Tomas Polido, the enslaved woman who raised him and his sib

Did video really kill the radio star? There’s no doubt that the expansion of visual technology played a huge role in the evolution of communications and entertainment, but consider the modern successes of podcasts and music streaming services. With over 2 million podcasts in existence and over 400 million people worldwide subscribers to some form of online music streaming service, audio remains alive and well; it still holds plenty of power to create intimacy, spark the imagination, and entertain us. There’s nothing quite like it. Veteran broadcaster Ross Reynolds took us on a journey from the first century of radio to today’s world of audiobooks, internet streaming, podcasts, and smart speakers. How has audio transmission changed society and what makes it such a powerful form of communication despite decades of change? Reynolds explored these questions and more, and encouraged our in-person and virtual audience members to share stories of their formative audio experiences. Ross Reynolds is KUOW’s executive p

When tackling topics of systemic racism, it’s all too easy to build narratives centered around white men and toxic masculinity. But white women have long held seats at the table— from their pre-Civil War ability to buy and sell enslaved people to the million-plus women members of the KKK, and beyond— as systems of white supremacy were built and maintained. We cannot skirt around the gendered roles of white women in systemic racism if we, as a society, hope to dismantle systems of oppression. We need to make space for a deeper understanding; Seattle anti-racist facilitators Ilsa Govan and Tilman Smith offer just such a space in their new book, What’s Up with White Women? Unpacking Sexism and White Privilege in Pursuit of Racial Justice.  Govan and Smith offer a frank yet compassionate guide for white women interested in becoming more effective in cross-cultural, anti-racist practices. The authors dive into stories of white women’s experiences with sexism, racism, and white privilege and discuss how white women

Anatole France once said, “Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” Susan Orlean’s soul has been awake for a very long time, indeed. The award-winning author brings forth On Animals, a collection of writings about our relationship with animals, done throughout her illustrious career. Orlean brought a keen eye and a warm sensibility to the animals that we eat, tame, and make our pets; animals that are wild and wondrous, and animals that could very well eat us. Orlean was 6-years-old when she wrote a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon. She hasn’t stopped writing about animals since. The collection includes pieces on backyard chickens (of which she has a clutch), backyard tigers (one woman had twenty-three of them), famous whales, and hard-working donkeys. Delightful and profound, On Animals celebrates our collective existence in this soulful world. Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1982. She is the New York Times bestselling author of seven boo

How old were you when you got your first cell phone? Did “going online” ever involve listening to a series of pained squeaks and static, willing the family PC to connect to…whatever it is it connected to? Today, children are presented with a sparkling array of digital tools that many of us could barely fathom as kids. How are parents and caregivers supposed to guide small humans into the digital realm without feeling completely overwhelmed? Instead of telling children what NOT to do online, EdTech expert Richard Culatta argued we should spend more time teaching kids HOW to navigate the online world. Cyberbullies happen. Social media isn’t going away, and neither are online games. In his new book, Digital for Good, Culatta helped caregivers prepare kids for navigating the tricky situations they will undoubtedly encounter as they move through the digital world, and offers straightforward advice for raising good digital citizens. Richard Culatta is the CEO of the International Society for Technology in Educatio

It’s been a watershed year. Social justice, and all that it means to us, is both in our grasp and slipping through our fingers. Seattle journalist Marcus Harrison Green, a dear friend and frequent collaborator with Town Hall Seattle, knows this well. Growing up black in South Seattle, Green has seen both the sharp rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the murk of police brutality in tandem. Based on experience, Green offered sharpness and clarity about racism as it pervades all aspects of our society – from classrooms and police patrolled streets, to the newsroom. He also writes about religion, mental health, human morality, and what his beloved grandmother taught him – and now teaches us. Marcus Harrison Green is a columnist for The Seattle Times. A long-time Seattle native, he is the founder of the South Seattle Emerald, which focuses on telling the stories of South Seattle and its residents. Michele Matassa Flores is executive editor of The Seattle Times. Buy the Book: Readying to Rise: Essays (Paper

Phyllis Wheatley, the first African-American author of a published book of poetry, wrote, “Imagination! Who can sing thy force?/Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?”. Wheatley could very well have been calling to the Black creatives, writers, orators, and leaders who would follow her. The imaginative force of Malcolm X and Toni Morrison, James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates, Barack Obama and Langston Hughes are imparted by Farah Jasmine Griffin in a series of meditations on the fundamental questions of art, politics, and the human condition in Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature. Griffin blends memoir with a deep reading of the Black community’s rich panoply of artists and thinkers who have made an indelible mark on America. By poring over the poems of Phyllis Wheatley, the speeches of Frederick Douglass, the lyrics of Billie Holiday, the novels of contemporary Jesmyn Ward, and others, Griffin sheds light on what it means to be human. Through this lens, Griffin ex

In Hungary, one summer’s night in 1969, Judy Temes’ family packed the car for, what was supposed to be, a vacation to Vienna. Judy’s parents took her 12-year-old brother and left her behind. She was five-years-old and was given to her grandmother. Her family wasn’t taking a vacation. They were escaping Hungary’s totalitarian regime. Her father, a doctor who survived the Holocaust, was using tourist visas that allowed entry into a Western country. Such visas were given under one particular condition. One child had to be left behind. This was the government’s way to ensure that citizens who left the country would return. Girl Left Behind is Judy Temes’s memoir, a story in which she didn’t know why her family left her, nor if she’d ever see them again. It’s a story of loss and trauma, the horrors of political strife and the cost of immigration policies. It’s the story of what it means growing up without a sense of home until you define it yourself. Judy Temes is a Seattle-based teacher, writer, and journalist w