John S.

  • Civil Rights in the 1940s: When Seattle began to grow up

    The 1940’s were times of change for Seattle, as the world war and social pressures associated with it brought the beginnings of maturity to the city. Seattle’s African American citizens experienced much of this change directly. Populations from the south, and elsewhere in the country, were drawn to better-paying war work in Seattle and brought cultural… Continue reading

  • At the River I Stand screening at the Douglass-Truth Branch

    At the River I Stand, a film detailing the strike of Memphis sanitation workers in 1968 will be screened at Douglass-Truth Branch in the Gayton Family Meeting Room on May 16, 2013 at 6:30 PM. King went to Memphis to support and advise the strike, and there he lost his life. Continue reading

  • Seattle’s Negro Repertory Program

    On Saturday, December 1st, the Douglass-Truth Branch will host a lecture and Q&A session on the Negro Repertory Company in Seattle. The program will be provided by Dr. Barry Witham, emeritus professor of Theatre at the University of Washington. A federally-funded theater program, the Negro Repertory Company was a project of the Works Progress Administration.… Continue reading

  • History Through Photographs of Capitol Hill

    For such a young city, Seattle revels in its history—neighborhoods celebrate their past, historical buildings are preserved in debate-filled public exchanges between developer and citizen, individuals trace their family and community history through genealogy and archival research. Everybody seems to have a strong sense of the past—their own, and the city’s. Continue reading

  • Book Banning Lives!

    Librarians, almost universally, are hostile to the idea of denying access to information. Every year, we honor the survival of literature against the onslaught of book banners and information suppressors with displays and programming to call the community’s attention to the fight. There is even a week set aside to memorialize what we regard as… Continue reading

  • Sad when that big ship went down…

    This month marks the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, yet the passage of time has not reduced the drama of, and questions about,  that cold spring night in the North Atlantic. The most familiar controversy has to do with the inadequate number of lifeboats, and the seeming indifference of the passengers. The… Continue reading

  • Seattle Camera Club’s Vision of Beauty

    The beauty of our city, and its surroundings — how often have these been noted and commented on? Every fine day we get another opportunity to be grateful for Seattle’s location, and every rainy or cloudy day, the beauty is still present but cloaked in different covering. We’re lucky to be reminded of this simple… Continue reading

  • When Langston Came to Town

    It is always interesting to think of famous people walking the streets of our city.  That is the idea behind the Douglass-Truth Branch’s exhibit ‘When Langston Came to Town’. It memorializes the day in May, 1932, when Langston Hughes drove into Seattle for an author program at the First AME Church. The Seattle Times called… Continue reading

  • Winter’s Bone Author—Live, at Capitol Hill!

    Posted on October 1, 2011 by library staff The Capitol Hill Branch proudly welcomes Winter’s Bone author Daniel Woodrell  for a reading on Monday, October 10th at 6:30 p.m.  Described by reviewers as “the most overlooked great novelist in America” and a “backcountry Shakespeare,”  Woodrell writes in a style he calls “country noir.” His works have… Continue reading

  • When Doctors Write

    Having recently read, and been moved by, works by Sherwin Nuland, Atul Gawande, and Abraham Verghese, I thought of a little stroll through the literature that has been written by doctors. An interesting and spiritual relationship, the work of healing and the creative work of the spirit—or so I thought. I soon discovered, though, that… Continue reading

  • To Oz on a Nook

    One of the best things about using an e-reader, as I keep saying, is the tons of out of print wonderful books available now. (“Tons” I use metaphorically, because being e-books, they don’t weigh a thing.) I eagerly browse the OverDrive Gutenberg E-Books and have hit the jackpot a number of times. Lately, since it’s… Continue reading

  • Citation chase

    If I were to think of all the books I have read because they were mentioned in another book, why I would be thinking for quite a while here.  It is so often the case that I follow an author’s mention of a title and look for and read that title, that I don’t even… Continue reading