Arts & Culture
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Nonfiction for Women’s History Month
Celebrate Women’s History Month with this selection of recently published memoirs and history highlighting women in the United States, and find more in our booklist Women’s History Month 2025. The Movement: How Women’s Liberation Transformed America, 1963-1973 by Clara Bingham Weaving together over 100 oral histories, Bingham brings to life the first ten years of… Continue reading
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Black History Month 2025
Each February we observe Black History Month, but why limit your enjoyment of Black writers, illustrators, thinkers, and creators to just one month? Librarians at the Seattle Public Library have put together several booklists to help keep you reading throughout the year, and highlighted a few titles from each list below: Black American Nonfiction Black… Continue reading
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10 Surprising Things that You Can Do Through The Seattle Public Library
You probably know that you can borrow books, use public computers and even reserve meeting rooms, all for free, through the Seattle Public Library. But did you also know that you can access digital newspapers and magazines, streaming services, job resources and personal tutoring in three languages? In honor of Library Card Sign-Up Month this… Continue reading
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T.A.M.I. and T.N.T., the G.O.A.T?
In the mid-60’s, highschoolers were released early with free tickets to Teenage Awards Music International (TAMI) – a showcase of artists & culture teens were purported to be into at the time. A year later, the same was done for the Big TNT (Tune & Talent) show. Both got it right, to an extent. Could… Continue reading
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Seattle Gay News Celebrates 50 Years!
As we know, Pride celebrations don’t end when June is over – and a great way to keep celebrating is with the Seattle Gay News Celebrates 50 Years Exhibit, currently on view at the Central Library’s Level 8 Gallery through August 25th! On view are excerpts from and commentary on the paper focusing on such… Continue reading
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These Books Became 2024 Oscar-Nominated Film Adaptations
The Seattle Public Library’s Reader Services team recently debuted a new monthly column in the Seattle Times. Read the article by Reader Services librarian Misha Stone on the Seattle Times website or below, where it’s republished with permission. The Seattle Public Library loves to promote books and reading. This column, submitted by the library,… Continue reading
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Blu-Ray Bruce!
Did you know we recently added Blu-Rays? And that compared even to streaming HD, Blu-Ray offers better stability (vs. Wi-Fi), picture, and audio (especially when considering beautifully curated prints)? Enter Bruce Lee! Where legends collide, your library’s box set, Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits contains seven painstakingly restored Blu-Rays featuring most of the local legend’s best work.… Continue reading
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Happy Black History Month 2024: Celebrating African Americans and the Arts
Though we celebrate the accomplishments of the people of the African and Black Diaspora all year, every February provides an opportunity to focus on and highlight the history and contributions of African Americans. Black History Month has a different theme each year, and 2024’s theme is African Americans and the Arts. There is not enough… Continue reading
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“Art Saves Me Daily”: Path with Art Exhibit at the Central Library
An extraordinary new exhibit is lighting up the Central Library’s Level 8 gallery. “Winter Visions,” on view until March 17, features artists involved with Path with Art, an organization that creates space for individual and community healing and growing through art. “Winter Visions” features works in a variety of media by Path with Art participants and… Continue reading
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More Music Documentaries, Please!
Let’s continue our dive into music documentaries, snapshots of musical process and lasting impact from notable musicians. On deck today: Little Richard and 90s band Morphine. Little Richard: I amEverything is well-titled. Gay. Black. Visionary. Check. Check. Check. But was Richard the king of rock? More on that later. The film explores his career chronologically… Continue reading
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Thrills and Chills for Winter Movie Nights
When the sun goes down at 4pm and the weather report says ten solid days of rain, there is nothing I like more than a hot cup of tea, a blanket, a cat on my lap…and watching something scary. For horror fans, there is nothing better. Like listening to moody music when you’re feeling down,… Continue reading
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One Documentary, One Concert, One Night of Rapturous Viewing!
Get your toes tapping and your soul soaring with these music documentaries. Starting with the elephant in the room, The Elephant 6 Recording Co. documentary takes an inside look at the 90’s rock collective most famous for Neutral Milk Hotel’s mythically held greatest-album-of-its-decade: 1998’s In the Aeroplane over the Sea. But as Robert Schneider, creative/spiritual leader… Continue reading
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December 2023 Events: Harps, Tap Dance, Writers’ Showcase and More
The Seattle Public Library’s spaces will light up in December with a silent reading party, a “White Christmas” Show Talk from the Fifth Avenue Theatre, a showcase of our very talented writers in residence and more. All Library events are free and open to the public; registration is now required unless otherwise noted. Find information… Continue reading
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A Day With(out) Art
By the late 1980’s, the AIDS crisis had reached a fever pitch in the United States. Afflicting primarily (but not exclusively) the gay male population, tens of thousands of people were dying every year, with elected officials responding at a snail’s pace, if at all. To emphasize the impact this was having on the arts… Continue reading
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Watch in the Dark: Film Noir Picks for Your Dark and Stormy Nights
It’s getting darker, folks. Sad about shorter days? Why not fill your longer nights with movies! Once we truly inhabit Seattle’s usual noir state…tumbling into the unrelenting dark, opting against navigating rain-slicked streets, and becoming actually as well as metaphorically more internal, it becomes time to embrace rather than turn away from the darkness without… Continue reading
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Using Horror to Expose Truths About Race: Tananarive Due at the Central Library on Nov. 1
Halloween might be on Oct. 31, but the season continues at the Central Library on Wednesday, Nov. 1, when award-winning horror writer and Jordan Peele collaborator Tananarive Due appears to discuss her much-anticipated new novel “The Reformatory,” just one day after it’s released. The event, which runs from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., is free… Continue reading
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Now Showing in Blu-ray
Beginning this fall, patrons will have an additional way to view movies, TV series and documentaries when the Library begins offering Blu-ray format for filmed media titles that are only available as a Blu-ray disc. This means our collection of filmed media will offer access to: DVDs Combo Packs (Blu-ray disc + DVD disc) Blu-rays… Continue reading