225. Scratch Night 2023: Presentation from Our Scholar-in-Residence, Sally James
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Release Date: 05/04/2023
357. Isaac Fitzgerald with Jon Mooallem: American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
“It’s a difficult thing, to separate legend from story from memory from fact.” Folklore and legend are critical components to any culture, passing tidbits of local history and lessons learned through generations. The idea of the folk hero in particular plays an important role in creating this legacy, rooted in the idea of benevolence and a direct connection to the people themselves. As a child, author Isaac Fitzgerald was always captivated by the tales of Johnny Appleseed, drawn in by family ties to the legend. Spurred on by his father’s larger-than-life stories and a shared...
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356. Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen with Jon Mooallem: The Art of the Picture Book
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Renowned picture book creators, Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, want people of all ages to understand and appreciate children’s stories and how this art form enriches our individual lives and our culture. Speaking on the process of creating their latest collaboration, a board book series called Now I See, Barnett and Klassen have insights into what makes a great children’s book using elements you can find both on and off the page. This multi-award winning, New York Times bestselling duo operates differently than a lot of children’s book creators. Typically, an author and...
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355. Melissa Auf der Maur with Gillian Gaar: Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A '90s Rock Memoir
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A ‘90s Rock Memoir presents an intimate look behind the scenes of an iconic era through the ever-reflective lens of musician Melissa Auf der Maur. In this debut memoir, Auf der Maur chronicles her journey through alternative music — from staffing ticket windows at local venues to navigating era-defining triumphs and turmoil under global spotlights. A bohemian upbringing in Montreal and an early connection to music led her to put down roots in the local scene, working as a cassette DJ and showing up for bands like Nirvana, Jane’s Addiction, Pavement,...
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354. Lori Matsukawa with Mimi Gan: Being There: Memoir of an Asian American Journalist
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
News anchor Lori Matsukawa is an award-winning journalist, author, and speaker who spent nearly 40 years at KING TV in Seattle. A trusted voice in Northwest media, she reveals how her childhood in multi-racial Hawai’i and traveling the world as Miss Teenage America led to a career she couldn’t imagine. Despite discrimination and disappointment along the way, Matsukawa became the role model she wished she’d had. She helped change what viewers saw on the newscasts that entered their homes. Matsukawa pursued her career at a time when society expected little from a person like her: a female...
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353. Straight Talk on Wills, Trusts, and Your Legacy: With Steven Schindler and Wendy Norman
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Join Wendy Norman, End‑of‑Life Planning Consultant, and Steven Schindler, Estate Attorney, for a grounded, practical conversation about the essentials of legacy planning — something every adult needs, no matter their age or stage of life. Together, they’ll break down what a Will actually does, when a Trust might be the better tool, and what really happens — financially and procedurally — if someone dies without either. You’ll also learn how a Durable Power of Attorney works while you’re alive, why its authority ends the moment you die (and what takes over afterward), and...
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352. Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life With Alex Mayyasi, Kenny Malone, Daryl Fairweather, and Jack Corbett
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Join the team behind the popular podcast Planet Money and celebrate the publication of their new book, Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life. Book author and longtime contributor Alex Mayyasi, Planet Money host Kenny Malone, and visual host Jack Corbett will bring Planet Money’s signature brand of storytelling to the stage and discuss some highlights from the new book, including unlikely origin stories, revealing truths about human behavior, and insightful suggestions for navigating chaotic...
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351. Maria Semple with Ken Jennings: An Existential Meet Cute
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Have you ever reinvented yourself — even unintentionally? Bestselling author Maria Semple’s latest novel, Go Gentle, tells the story of one woman’s midlife transformation. Adora Hazzard, a Stoic philosopher and divorcée living in New York City, believes that she has it all figured out. She’s a working mom of a teenage daughter, she’s relishing her freedom, and she regularly meets with a group of like-minded women she refers to her “coven” — a group she assembled herself and is working to expand. Adora’s carefully curated life is going as planned until a chance meeting...
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350. Terry Tempest Williams: The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
In a world so fraught with chaos and uncertainty, where can we find connection and hope? Author Terry Tempest Williams invites readers to learn about what she calls “The Glorians.” In her latest work, The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary, Williams explains that Glorians are not distant deities, but instead ordinary, often overlooked presences — animals, plants, memories, moments — that reveal our shared vulnerability and interconnectedness with the natural world. The Glorians can be as small as an ant or as commonplace as the night sky. Williams offers both...
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349. Lindy West: Adult Braces: A Memoir
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
In her new memoir, Adult Braces, Lindy West brings readers along on an uproarious cross-country road trip as she unpacks her last few tumultuous years, rediscovers herself, and reinvents her marriage. Through Shrill—the book and then the Hulu series—Lindy West became an inspiration. To this day, she is stopped on the street and hailed as a beacon of empowerment by women who felt badly for not conforming to a narrow set of societal norms—thin, straight, compliant. But behind the scenes, Lindy never felt like she was the self-actualized woman fans made her out to be. When...
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348. V.E. Schwab and Cat Clarke with Moira Macdonald: The Ending Writes Itself: A Novel
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Layering classic tropes of the mystery genre with a clever modern satire of the publishing industry, The Ending Writes Itself is the debut novel of “Evelyn Clarke,” a new writing collaboration between best-selling authors V.E. Schwab and Cat Clarke. Joined in conversation by local author and journalist Moira Macdonald, Schwab and Clarke explore their co-authoring venture and the twists and turns that await readers in their new take on a locked-room mystery thriller. How will the pages unfold for the six authors isolated with nothing but their own minds, a diabolical...
info_outlineEvery year, Town Hall selects exceptional local artists and scholars for paid residencies where they engage with Town Hall programs and collaborate with our programming team to develop original events for the community. For our Spring 2023 residency, we’re lucky enough to have both a Scholar- and an Artist-in-Residence. This Scratch Night will showcase their work in progress.
Scholar in Residence: Sally James
Sally James is a writer whose curiosity about people has taken her from jails to hospitals to schools to research labs. Once a staff member of daily newspapers, she has been an independent writer on medicine and science for many years. Most recently, she’s reported stories for the South Seattle Emerald, Parentmap, Seattle and Seattle Business magazines, and other outlets. She is the mother of three adult children and lives in Seattle with her husband and a noisy cat. She is a former president of the Northwest Science Writer’s Association, a nonprofit supporting science communication.
Focus while in Residence: In the words of Sally, “The Year 12 project is asking about a pivotal time in a young person’s growth when what’s swirling around us in news, music, or culture may leave a permanent imprint on our identities.
You can participate in Sally’s Year 12 project here: Share your Year 12 Stories!