253. Sloane Crosley with Ben Gibbard: Grief Is for People
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Release Date: 04/12/2024
396. Kay Smith-Blum in Conversation with Joshua Frank, Moderated by Gerry Pollet: Nuclear Secrets, Past and Present
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Environmental advocate and HOANW founder, Gerry Pollet moderates a conversation with debut author Kay Smith-Blum and investigative journalist and author, Joshua Frank. They will explore the real-life inspirations behind Smith-Blum’s novel, Tangles, and its themes of environmental justice and human resilience against the stark backdrop of the state of the cleanup today, highlighted in Frank’s non-fiction volume, Atomic Days. Don’t miss this chance to dive into an emotionally charged story that daylights the fallout—both literal and figurative—of America’s nuclear ambitions and...
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395. Cynthia Brothers with Tom Eykemans: Signs of Vanishing Seattle
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Cities in postcards and sweeping film shots are all dramatic skylines and big recognizable features, but to really love a city is to know it on the ground level. The spaces that build community, shape culture, and support neighborhoods may not always be the flashiest silhouettes, but they’re often the most iconic to the people who live amongst them. This is something Vanishing Seattle knows all too well, as they’ve built an expansive media movement around shining lights on displaced small businesses and disappearing local institutions across the city. In their most recent collaborative...
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394. Unlearning with Lindsey T.H. Jackson: Misogynoir — The Intersection of Misogyny and Anti-Blackness
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Explore the uncomfortable conversations you’ve been eager for in a space that encourages open and safe expression. Weaving together storytelling, poetry, music, and panel interviews with powerful voices, Unlearning offers the opportunity to address issues like discrimination, social justice, violence, and many other pressing (and often taboo) topics while healing and learning together. Join Lindsey T.H. Jackson, a visionary social activist, podcaster, author, and CEO at LTHJ Global, for this first edition of Unlearning focusing on Misogynoir. Misogynoir is the...
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393. Rob Sheffield: An Era Like No Other — How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Throughout her storied career, Taylor Swift has kept her name in the news with chart-topping hits, aesthetic reinvention, and nonstop global influence. Over the years and across the genres, die-hard fans and scholars alike have chronicled the cultural phenomenon that is Taylor Swift. And long story short, pop music expert and self-described Taylor Swift aficionado Rob Sheffield has been along for the whole ride. In his newest book, Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music, Sheffield dives fearlessly into the labyrinth of Taylor Swift’s extensive...
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392. Opening Doors to the Outdoors: Inclusivity in Climbing
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Access to the outdoors is a basic human need—from the granite under our feet during adventures or simply a breath of fresh air. Yet, that access isn’t equal. In the U.S., more than one in three people lack access to a park within a 10-minute walk of home, disproportionately affecting Black and Brown communities. The outdoor and climbing industries face similar challenges. Lack of diversity in leadership, limited funding, and gate-kept information make the climb steeper for many. However, climbers of color have risen to become some of the sport’s most accomplished athletes, demonstrating...
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391. Alison Fensterstock with Emily Fox and Rachel Flotard: How Women Made Music — A Revolutionary History
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Celebrate women who rock in a discussion with the hosts of NPR music’s series Turning the Tables as they share their new book How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music. Uncovering the role women have played in shaping the music industry, editor Alison Fensterstock brings long-overdue recognition to female artists, challenging traditional best album lists and highlighting overlooked contributions in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. By bringing together material from over fifty years of NPR’s coverage, Fensterstock underscores the enduring impact of...
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390. Trimpin in Discussion with Gary Faigin: The Sound of Invention
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Combining digital technology with everyday salvaged materials, sculptor and composer Trimpin has invented ways of playing everything from giant marimbas to a 60-foot stack of guitars using MIDI commands. Taking inspiration equally from junkyards, museums, and concert halls, Trimpin creates eccentric and interactive instruments from found materials, including saw blades, toy monkeys, duck calls, beer bottles, Bunsen burners, slide projectors, turkey basters, and pottery wheels. Trimpin’s computer-driven musical contraptions defy the constraints of traditional instruments. In...
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389. Tonya Lockyer with Jackson Cooper: Navigating Creative Administration — With Advice from Firsthand Accounts
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
When we think about consuming art, whether reading a book, visiting a museum, or maybe watching an outdoor performance act, we rarely consider the administrative efforts that go into making art possible. Creative administration is an evolving field that considers the innovation and organizational management necessary to create and present art. Artists find themselves having to balance their own vision, with the practicalities of physical production, collaboration, and so many other factors. Artists on Creative Administration: A Workbook from the National Center for Choreography, is a...
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388. Nathan Myhrvold with Bethany Jean Clement: Modernist Bread at Home
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Join Modernist Cuisine founder and author Nathan Myhrvold to explore one of the world’s most beloved (and occasionally controversial) foods: bread. In this conversation that’s sure to be like naan other, Myhrvold will discuss his new book, Modernist Bread at Home, and why now is the perfect time to rise to the occasion and start making bread in your own kitchen. Myhrvold will draw on the Modernist Cuisine team’s extensive research to share some of his favorite insights, tips, and tricks from the book, all the info you knead to make better bread at home. Nathan Myhrvold is...
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387. André Aciman with Marcie Sillman: Coming of Age in The Eternal City — A New Book by the Author of "Call Me by Your Name"
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
The city of Rome is a legacy locale in countless areas of history and culture. For teenage refugee André Aciman, Rome was also a source of life-changing challenges, charms, and connections that would have a place in his heart for years to come. In his upcoming book Roman Year: A Memoir, Aciman recounts the ways his family adapted to the harsh realities of their transition and how he himself fell in love with the poetry and potential of a new home. Roman Year transports readers back to a tumultuous chapter of Aciman’s youth as his Jewish family fled an era of growing political...
info_outlineHave 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. She seeks solace not only in those close to her but in art and philosophy as well, hoping for a useful framework outside the oft-cited five stages of grief. Crosley’s readership may not have seen this side of the author, but will nevertheless recognize those observations and examinations of the human condition interlaced with levity that popularized her earlier writings.
Grief Is for People seeks to upend the traditional grief memoir and offer both consolation and challenge to standard conceptions of mourning. Crosley’s talk is for anyone in a current time of sorrow or who has experienced a loss and might welcome a discussion beyond platitudes.
Sloane Crosley is the author of the novels Cult Classic and The Clasp and three essay collections: Look Alive Out There and the New York Times bestsellers I Was Told There’d Be Cake and How Did You Get This Number.
Benjamin Gibbard is a multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of Death Cab for Cutie, formed in 1997, and one half of the electronic duo The Postal Service. Gibbard released his debut solo album “Former Lives” in 2012, and he has scored two films. Gibbard is an avid ultra-marathon runner and a longtime resident of Seattle.
