Seattle Arts & Lectures

After incarceration, how do you reenter a society that doesn’t offer open arms? Reginald Dwayne Betts is an award-winning author, poet, lawyer, and outspoken advocate for criminal justice reform, whose work interrogates and challenges our notions of justice. Betts has adapted his celebrated poetry collection, Felon, into a one-man performance piece, which he will perform for this SAL Presents event. Q&A with Stacy D. Flood.

Peabody Award-winning host Krista Tippett presents a live, in-person recording of the wildly popular On Being podcast, featuring guest speaker Isabel Wilkerson. Wilkerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, has become a leading figure in narrative nonfiction with The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste. Join these two friends and interpreters of the human condition for a night of incredible conversation.

Kate Baer is an author and poet who garnered acclaim following the publication of her first collection of poetry, What Kind Of Woman. The collection examines the many roles women play in the modern era, as Baer seeks to place the experiences of motherhood, female companionship, and marriage at the heart of what it means to be poetic. Baer’s newest work, And Yet, dives even deeper into themes of friendship, love, loss, and motherhood, displaying Baer’s ever-increasing capacity to explore…

Jason Reynolds, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books for young readers. His book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, a collaboration with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, and his bestselling stories, such as Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, All American Boys (with Brendan Kiely), Long Way Down, and Miles Morales-Spiderman make him “one of the most exciting, constantly surprising voices in children’s literature.” Q&A…

Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest, who has garnered acclaim for her ability to integrate issues of science, technology, religion, environmental politics, and global pop culture into unique, hybrid forms. Her latest novel, The Book of Form and Emptiness, tells the story of a young boy who, after the death of his father, starts to hear voices and finds solace in the companionship of his very own book. Q&A with Shawn Wong.