SAL Announces New Season: Last night at Town Hall, Seattle Arts and Lectures announced most of their upcoming season's worth of readers. Highlights in the poetry series (which will now be hosted by the Chihuly Museum at Seattle Center) include Ted Kooser, Sherman Alexie, and Terrance Hayes. The literary series will feature, among others, Colm Toibin and Cheryl Strayed. SAL is also launching a new series called "Hinge," which will feature "emerging and experimental writers" onstage at Barboza, which seems like a great venue for readings. The first reader in this series will be John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, who will be publishing a novel later this year. All the information about the 2014-2015 SAL reading series can be found on their website.
Solnit Disappoints: Rebecca Solnit's reading at Town Hall last night was unfortunate. Her reading voice was unpleasantâsing-songy and unpracticedâand the piece went on for way too long. Luckily, Solnit's Q&A session with Stranger art critic Jen Graves was lively and funny and everything that Solnit's reading was not. Sometimes, an author just isn't a good reader; it happens. Ninety five percent of SAL's readers are excellent. It's a bummer that Solnit was in that crappy five percent.
The Pains and Pleasures of Watching a Naked Woman Scrutinize Herself: Live performance was at first direly missing from the Henry Art Galleryâs exhibition of two 1970s protofeminists (Joan Jonas and Gina Pane). Thatâs been corrected, and the final performance of Jonasâs piece Mirror Check is happening Sunday at 2:30 pm. Mirror Check is a naked woman examining her body with a handheld mirror in front of an audience until she is finished. As if she will ever be finished. Sunday is also the final day of the show. Here's a review.
New York Org Creative Time Betrays Boycotting ArtistsâAgain: Hyperallergic reported yesterday that a Creative Time exhibition curated by Nato Thompson has traveled to Israel, and is even being shown in Technion, or the Israeli Institute of Technology where weapons research is done, without having notified the artists involved, several of whom now want their work removed immediately. The company Independent Curators International (ICI), which arranged the itinerary for Creative Time, sent a lame letter to the artists after the fact, on June 4, reading:
While ICI does not take part in the boycott of Israel under BDS or other frameworks, we feel strongly about the right of others to boycott. So if you would like to discuss your participation in this presentation of the exhibition, please contact me by email or directly on my cell phone at [Redacted] so that we can make sure that your positions are respected.
Given that the artistsâ positions were already flagrantly disrespected, an apology is in order from ICI. Creative Timeâs Thomspon wrote, âWe are aware of the seriousness of this and should have a statement soon,â but unbelievably, this isnât even the first time Creative Time has made this mistake. High-profile, big-budget arts organizations that think they can hide under nets of political neutrality should be called out. Iâm glad the artists have spoken up, and that Hyperallergic responded.
Is $15 Too Much for Fantagraphics? When asked about Seattle's $15/hour minimum wage by the Comics Reporter, Fantagraphics Books publisher (and 2014 Stranger Literature Genius nominee) Gary Groth said the following:
"We do not have an official statement," Gary Groth told CR. "My unofficial statement is that Portland is looking pretty good about now."
Hooray, Part 1: Lupita Nyong'o is starring in and producing a a film adaptation of Americanah, which is a novel that The Stranger loves.
Hooray, Part 2: Lego will create three female scientist minifigs, complete with dinosaur skeletons, chemistry sets, and adorable little telescopes.
