243. Sheila Johnson with Gin Hammond: Through the Fire
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Release Date: 12/04/2023
258. Shain Shapiro with Greg Scruggs: How Music Builds Cities
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Looking back through history, it is obvious that the presence of music has had a profound impact on the daily lives of humans, our cultural rituals, and the evolution of civilization as a whole. Yet in public discourse, we still tend to separate conversations about music from those about civics or politics. We frame music as a product for entertainment when in reality the practice of music is deeply tied to the way our communities are structured and function. Shain Shapiro is the director of the global nonprofit Center for Music Ecosystems, and author of This Must Be The Place: How...
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257. Benjamin Wurgaft and Merry White with Peter Miller: Epicurean Odyssey
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
What do we learn when an anthropologist and a historian talk about food? Across endless eras, landscapes, and civilizations, humanity’s relationship with food has played the part of one of the landmark features of culture and community. We feel this on both the micro and macro scale — from learning a recipe passed down through generations of one’s own family to the excitement of exploring an unfamiliar local market in a city far from home. Culinary curiosity invites us all to the table, and through their new book, Ways of Eating, authors and storytellers Benjamin Wurgaft and Merry...
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256. Tricia Romano with Dan Savage and Jane Levine: Voices of the Village
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
The Village Voice aimed to show readers something that mainstream publications wouldn’t: live theater productions climbing through the scaffolding of off-Broadway venues; moments in music from hip-hop to jazz to punk; New York City civil issues, like corrupt landlords; and global issues, like the AIDS crisis. Through decades of independent reporting and first-hand accounts within the myriad subcultures of New York, the Village Voice built a journalistic legacy of lived experience, bold critique, and political activism. One can’t help but wonder, what it must have...
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255. Sasha LaPointe with Dawn Barron: Poignant Reflections on Indigenous America
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
What does it mean to be a proudly queer Indigenous woman in the United States today? Sasha LaPointe, winner of the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Award for her memoir, Red Paint, shares a new collection of essays that navigate the complexities of indigenous identity, challenge stereotypes, and address cultural displacement and environmental concerns. Thunder Song draws inspiration from her family’s rich archive and the work of her late great-grandmother and weaves together stories that demonstrate the profound intersections of community, commitment, and conscientious honesty....
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254. Tessa Hulls with Putsata Reang: Exploring Generational Echoes
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
If you’re a part of the Seattle arts scene, chances are you’ve come across Tessa Hulls. She has a hand in many local creative communities, including Seattle Arts & Lectures (where you might have spotted her illustrations on the 2021 Summer Book Bingo Card!), the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, and the Henry Art Museum. She’s also the lead artist in the Wing Luke Museum exhibit which explores the impacts of how the I-5 construction ran right through the Chinatown International District in the 1960s. It’s no surprise then that Hulls is passionate about mixing art and...
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253. Sloane Crosley with Ben Gibbard: Grief Is for People
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Have you ever lost something or someone dear to you? Though it ranges in severity and impact, loss is a shared human experience – an inevitable, inescapable part of life. Praised for her humor and sharp wit, essayist and novelist Sloane Crosley delivers her first memoir Grief is for People, exploring how loss can take many forms. After the pain and confusion of losing her closest friend Russell to suicide – which occurred only a month after also losing prized possessions and her sense of safety following a burglary – Crosley looks for answers, even where they may be elusive....
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252. Eric Klinenberg with Margaret O’Mara: A Year Which Will Live in Infamy
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
You’d be hard-pressed to find a person whose life went unchanged in 2020, arguably one of the most consequential years in human history. It marked an unprecedented time, left indelible memories in our minds, and set off ripple effects we still feel even today. Disruption of normal life was nearly universal; however, the ways in which we experienced disruption were varied. Acclaimed sociologist and bestselling author Eric Klinenberg’s latest work 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed offers an account of a single year in modern history told through the...
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251. Robots Who Paint: What’s Next with AI and Art?
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Three expert guests discuss the implications of AI and the fine arts in a conversation moderated by Steve Scher. Scientist and founder of the Artists and Machine Intelligence program at Google, Blaise Agüera y Arcas, will offer his “news from the front” about the latest developments in AI capabilities, and what he foresees ahead. Alex Alben, technology executive, author, and law professor, will review the implications of AI to the artist from the point of view of intellectual property: is anything on the internet up for grabs, or is compensation for image...
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250. James Miles - Gotta Stay Fresh: Transforming Learning with Hip-Hop Education
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Hip-hop education is more than just music; it’s a dynamic tool for fostering student success and intellectual growth. James Miles, known as the Fresh Professor, is renowned for his engaging teaching style. By infusing lessons with content that’s inspirational, intellectually engaging, and relevant to students’ lives, Miles demonstrates how teachers can use hip-hop education to help students better retain information and think critically about concepts inside and outside the classroom. Miles will be joined by a panel of experts with backgrounds ranging from educators to artists who will...
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249. Alexis Devine with Sarah Stremming: How a Talking Dog Could Teach You How to Be Human
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Many of us talk to our pets daily, but what would you do if your pet could talk back? What do you think they would say? When Bunny, a fluffy, black-and-white sheepadoodle, was eight weeks old, her guardian Alexis presented her with an odd gift: a button programmed to say “outside” when pressed. Within a few weeks, Bunny was using it all the time, and Alexis, encouraged by Bunny’s progress, continued to introduce more buttons and more words. Three years later, Bunny can now communicate using over one hundred buttons, stringing together important, relatable, philosophical phrases such as...
info_outlineIf you thought billionaire success stories all looked pretty similar, prepare to be surprised.
From middle-class Midwestern beginnings, Sheila Johnson went from an accomplished violinist who married young to become one of the most accomplished businesswomen in America. A co-founder of the popular network Black Entertainment Television (BET) and the first African-American woman billionaire, Johnson rose to become an entrepreneur and philanthropist at the highest levels.
Her new book, Walk Through Fire: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Triumph is filled with candor and emotion as Johnson recounts her many challenges, both in her professional life and thirty-three-year marriage. From battling self-doubt and institutional racism to losing a child, suffering domestic emotional abuse, and plunging into a deep depression from her divorce, Johnson has faced no shortage of hardships. And yet, out of that pain came renewed purpose and meaning. In the third act of her life, Johnson has not only made her mark as the founder of Salamander Hotels & Resorts and the only Black female co-owner of three professional sports teams but has also finally found true love.
Walk Through Fire is at once a story of the American dream and the deeply personal portrait of one woman who, despite heartache and obstacles, finally found herself and her place in the world. Johnson’s deeply personal account of love and loss, tragedy and triumph is an example of overcoming toxicity, discovering her true self, and at last finding happiness in work and life.
Sheila Johnson is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist, co-founder of BET, founder, and CEO of Salamander Hotels & Resorts, and the only African American woman to have a principal shareholder stake in three professional sports teams.
Gin Hammond is an award-winning Harvard University/Moscow Art Theatre graduate, as well as an actor, writer, director, and has performed onstage both nationally and internationally. She is also the author of the recently released historical fiction novel Returning The Bones which she wrote after a decade of interviews with the main character.
Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Northwest African American Museum.
Community partner: Seattle Black Business Network
Third Place Books