273. Reagan Jackson with Quenton Baker and Bettina Judd: Exploring Seattle's Evolution
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Release Date: 09/04/2024
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
What connects Seattle with Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, and Kenny G? How about the Melvins, Sleater-Kinney, and Foo Fighters? And Sir Mix-a-Lot, Macklemore, and Travis Thompson? If you don’t know, KEXP DJ and musician Eva Walker and music writer Jake Uitti can tell you. Walker and Uitti have created a timeline of Seattle’s music evolution through the lens of 101 songs spanning 80 years, the culmination of which, they say, creates a distinct “Seattle sound.” In their book, The Sound of Seattle, they highlight notable music and musicians who have ties with the Emerald city. It all...
info_outline 283. Edward Burns with Katy Sewall: A Kid from Marlboro RoadTown Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Edward Burns is known for his work as an actor and filmmaker, and now he’s debuting his novel-writing skills in A Kid from Marlboro Road. Set in the 1970s, his novel follows an Irish-American family living on Long Island––elements inspired by Burns’s own childhood. This coming-of-age tale explores the impacts of family history, the growing independence in early adolescence, death and grief, and dynamic family relationships. Burns tells the story through the eyes of a 13-year-old boy, Kneeney, who opens the tale at the wake of his beloved grandfather, Pop. The wake’s overflowing...
info_outline 282. Sahaj Kohli with Ruchika T. Malhotra: When Mental Health, Family, & Culture IntersectTown Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
As the daughter of immigrants, Sahaj Kaur Kohli grew up understanding what it means to straddle multiple cultures at once. She wrestled with questions like what it meant to forge one’s path, establishing personal values while embracing one’s origins; if prioritizing mental health meant a rejection of culture; how to set boundaries and engage in self-care when family and community are so important. Even after becoming a therapist herself, she saw those same gaps in the mental health world, leading her to wonder, like so many children of immigrants: what about us? Kohli’s latest...
info_outline 281. Inspired Natives®: Celebrate Native Art, Culture, and FoodTown Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Celebrate Native art and culture with Learn why supporting Native-designed products and art is crucial, and how your support fosters Native prosperity while combating cultural appropriation. Panelists: Founder of OXDX, Jared Yazzie (Navajo/Diné) is a self-taught graphic artist, entrepreneur, and designer known for his bold, graphic style that incorporates vibrant Diné motifs with messages of Native empowerment. Through his bold art and products, both with Eighth Generation and through his own brand OXDX, Jared works to increase awareness of Indigenous issues while...
info_outline 280. David Yeager with Tricia Raikes: The Science of Speaking to Young PeopleTown Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Imagine a world in which Gen Xers, millennials, and boomers interact with young people in ways that leave them feeling inspired, enthusiastic, and ready to contribute—rather than disengaged, outraged, or overwhelmed. That world may be closer than you think. In his new book, 10-to-25: The Science of Motivating Young People, psychologist David Yeager explains how to stop fearing young people’s brains and how to truly connect with them. Neuroscientists have discovered that around age ten, puberty spurs the brain to crave socially rewarding experiences, such as pride, admiration, and...
info_outline 279. Khushbu Shah with J. Kenji López-Alt: Culture & CuisineTown Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
What is Indian food in America? The country’s identity as a melting pot makes for a diverse tapestry of flavors, but that doesn’t always equate to easily being able to identify one’s place in the culinary landscape. In her debut cookbook Amrikan: 125 Recipes From the Indian Diaspora, acclaimed Food & Wine writer and editor Khushbu Shah presents instructions for preparing dinners, drinks, and desserts as varied as Saag Paneer Lasagna, Pani Puri Mojitos, and Masala Chai Basque Cheesecake. But Shah goes beyond instructions and ingredients, writing about the...
info_outline 278. Jesmyn Ward with Ijeoma Oluo: Let Us DescendTown Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Jesmyn Ward, the two-time National Book Award winner, has returned with a new novel about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War. Let Us Descend, an Oprah’s Book Club pick, describes a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. In Let Us Descend (the title inspired by a line in Dante’s Inferno) the protagonist Annis is sold by her father, a white slaveowner. In the face of unspeakable circumstances on her way south, Annis seeks comfort from memories of her mother...
info_outline 277. Marisel Salazar with Agueda Pacheco Flores: Latin-ish — Bold Flavors that Break BoundariesTown Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Dynamic dishes, rich backgrounds, and a legacy of flavor are all on the menu in Marisel Salazar’s debut cookbook Latin-ish: More Than 100 Recipes Celebrating American Latino Cuisines. Building on her heritage with years of research and travel, Salazar takes fellow cooks and food enthusiasts on a flavor-packed journey through the Latine diaspora. This collection of recipes draws from a wide range of community-driven cooking and immigrant experience, translated into the kitchens of today. Latin-ish is a unique deep dive into regional Latine food influences across the...
info_outline 276. Daniel J. Levitin with Brian Nova and Marc McKennon: Music, Healing, and Human BiologyTown Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Have you ever thought about music not just as entertaining, but as something healing? Research suggests that the benefits of music can go beyond just jamming to catchy tunes. Neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author of This Is Your Brain on Music Daniel J. Levitin explores this idea in his new book, I Heard There was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine. Levitin’s recent release discusses music as one of humanity’s oldest medicines and explores the deep connections between music and healing that have been found across the globe. I Heard There Was a...
info_outline 275. Anna Marie Tendler with Jen Soriano: Men Have Called Her Crazy — A Literary Self-PortraitTown Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
In early 2021, popular artist Anna Marie Tendler checked herself into a psychiatric hospital following a year of crippling anxiety, depression, and self-harm. Over two weeks, she underwent myriad psychological tests, participated in numerous therapy sessions, connected with fellow patients, and experienced profound breakthroughs, such as when a doctor noted, “There is a you inside that feels invisible to those looking at you from the outside.” In her new book, Men Have Called Her Crazy, Tendler recounts her hospital experience as well as pivotal moments in her life that preceded and...
info_outlineWhat does it mean to bear witness to a city in flux, where the echoes of inequality, gentrification, and community resistance reverberate through its streets? Author and activist Reagan Jackson’s collection of essays, Still True, poses this question and chronicles her journey into the world of journalism. Equal parts personal testament, structural interrogation, and social criticism, Jackson offers a profound reflection on the evolving landscape of Seattle.
By illuminating the struggles and triumphs of marginalized communities, Jackson reinforces our collective resolve in the face of adversity. Jackson offers a glimpse into the interconnectedness of human experiences and the enduring quest for social justice.
Join us for a discussion about Jackson’s book and the ever-changing landscape of our city.
Reagan Jackson believes in creating communities of belonging and the efficacy of critical thinking followed by action. She is a multi-genre writer (poet, novelist, award-winning journalist, children’s book author), an artist, activist, and international educator with an abiding love of justice, spirituality, and traveling to new places. Reagan is passionate about providing young people with opportunities and support. To that end, she is the co-executive Director of Young Women Empowered and has taken over two hundred youth abroad to Japan, Guatemala, and Mexico respectively. She is the cohost and producer of the Deep End Friends Podcast.
Quenton Baker is a poet, educator, and Cave Canem fellow. Their current focus is black interiority and the afterlife of slavery. Their work has appeared in The Offing, Jubilat, Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. They are a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the recipient of the 2018 Arts Innovator Award from Artist Trust. They were a 2019 Robert Rauschenberg Artist in Residence and a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow. They are the author of we pilot the blood (The 3rd Thing, 2021) and ballast (Haymarket Books, 2023).
Bettina Judd is an interdisciplinary writer, artist, and performer whose research focus is on Black women’s creative production and use of visual art, literature, and music to develop feminist thought. Her book Feelin: Creative Practice, Pleasure, and Black Feminist Thought (Northwestern University Press, December 2022) argues that Black women’s creative production is feminist knowledge production produced by registers of affect she calls “feelin.” She is currently Associate Professor of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington.