Chris

  • Write On!: A Story Only You Can Tell, Writing a Memoir

    Your Life is a Book. The very act of writing the story of your life whether for yourself, your family and friends or for any reading eye, is significant. Where to begin? How will you capture those Shimmering Images in words that evoke the feelings, the meaning and importance of long ago moments? How do… Continue reading

  • Write On!: Nonfiction Writing Informs the World

    Do you have an investigative mind? Is sussing out the “true story” something that intrigues you? Does researching a topic or an issue give you a thrill? How many times has someone said, “You should write about that!” If you have, ever, dashed off a letter to the editor, why did you stop there? Why… Continue reading

  • Write on!: The Very Personal Journey of Keeping a Journal

    You can travel any day at any time, circle back and revisit the past in the present or venture far into the future. Moments are remembered, ideas may be realized or not, a memory cherished, a day best left forgotten is there on the page and, now, you realize something you could not have understood,… Continue reading

  • The Last Note Begins with See Sharp: On Transforming Your Thoughts into Poetry

    In the first four weeks of April, Shelf Talk published the series An April Quartet in honor of National Poetry Month. Each blog post was centered around an accompanying resource list, An April Quartet: In Alto, Poets Face that Discordant Sound, An April Quartet:  Some Soprano Sops Up a Poem’s Bread (the Rising), An April… Continue reading

  • An April Quartet, Part IV: Tenor, in the Tenor of these Times, Raise Your Voice High

    What do you say, to yourself and others, about these days we are living through? How are you describing the events, people, known and unknown, the circumstances and situations you witness or find yourself encountering? Your words may be heard by a few, by many or you alone, either way you give voice to the… Continue reading

  • An April Quartet, Part III: Bass Note of Blue, the Flowering

    This Spring greets us with peril and possibility. More than a movie, more than any play or book in which we can flip fast to the end and find out what happens, walk out, grab a snack or turn the dang thing off we just don’t know, do we, when this will be over? We… Continue reading

  • An April Quartet, Part II: Some Soprano Sops a Poem’s Bread (the Rising)

    When poetry is on the menu how can you go wrong? There is such a bounty of poems, in the world, about our favorite pastime that you can have your pick and there’s plenty more where that came from! We have to start somewhere and that somewhere is right here. The resource list, An April… Continue reading

  • Nonprofit Grant Research with the Library

    Nonprofits, you are on our minds. At a time when the communities you serve need you the most, you are experiencing the impacts of COVID-19 along with the rest of us. Sources of revenue like fundraising events and programs have been put on hold, staff and volunteers are under stay-at-home orders, and you’re navigating the… Continue reading

  • An April Quartet:  In Alto, Poets Face that Discordant Sound

    This is how April will find us, still, in the throes of this great viral mystery. Who shall be next? Who will escape, sometimes, barely? Hold on! Persist. Where to find solace and perspective? In poetry, perhaps. In honor of National Poetry Month, we have prepared a map of sorts. A poetic map of terrain… Continue reading

  • Frame by Frame:  Celebrating Northwest Art and Artists

    Frame by Frame:  Celebrating Northwest Art and Artists

    Seattle hosts a rich tradition of art-making from Northwest Indian arts to contemporary artists. A spectrum of artists of every level and medium, of organizations, collectors and art lovers engenders a vibrant community within and beyond our city limits. The Seattle Public Library has long held a significant place in this city’s arts infrastructure. Our… Continue reading

  • The Space Needle: A 21st Century View

    How many times have you gauged your location or some necessary distance by that 605 foot spinning top of a landmark? Long after March 1962, the centerpiece of Seattle Center has evolved just as the campus it towers over continues to morph and change with the ever-growing city surrounding it. The future is here! Built… Continue reading

  • Toni Morrison and the Library

    From a small town girl to a big city woman, Toni Morrison had a deep, enduring connection to libraries. As a teenager, after school, she did housework for a white family. Complaining about the treatment she received, her sister helped her get a job shelving books at the Lorain Public Library. This experience was the… Continue reading

  • Intiman’s Native Gardens: Beyond the Theatre

    A familiar story is taking place. Faces change but tensions remain the same. What to do about the new neighbors? In Native Gardens, playwright Karen Zacarías makes a scene, actually many, out of the dilemma a couple of couples face while getting to know ”the neighbors.” Set in the adjoining backyards of two townhouses in… Continue reading

  • Bird Week: Tweet Spring! Celebrating Seattle’s Birds

    The Seattle Public Library is partnering with the Seward Park Audubon Center for Bird Week, April 23-30, in celebration of the center’s tenth anniversary and the National Audubon Society’s 2018 Year of the Bird. From the oldest of worlds into the new they flew, heralding dawn, signaling coming night, solitary, in flocks they arrived. Seed carriers,… Continue reading

  • Seattle Rep’s FAMILIAR: Beyond the Theatre

    Seattle Rep’s FAMILIAR: Beyond the Theatre

    Seattle Repertory Theatre presents FAMILIAR from April 27- May 27, 2018. Librarians at Seattle Public Library created this resource list of books, CDs and DVDs to enhance your experience of the show. We know that a wedding unites more than two people. The couple are not just traveling the distance to complete their vows, their families are… Continue reading

  • Click! Photography through the Lens of History

    Click! A photograph is a precise record of an irretrievable instant, locked within the borders of a frame that transcends time. Did you know that the history of the camera predates the history of photography? Check out 100 Ideas that Changed Photography for more eye opening discoveries of how a room-sized device came to be… Continue reading

  • The Art of the Journey

    What do January and December have in common? The letter r, as in near or at the end of a journey. From January to December of this year, we have been on an artistic journey with the year-long Begin Bold End Inspired series focusing on the creative process. Each month offered an opportunity to explore… Continue reading

  • E(ART)H

    Humans have been making art of the earth and out of the earth for millennia. In the contemporary world these works are, variously, known as Earthworks, Land Art and Environmental Art. The inspiration found in nature is limitless. For some artists inspiration isn’t enough; they have to get their hands dirty! Stone, soil, water, sand,… Continue reading