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What strategies have worked to build lasting peace in conflict zones, particularly for ordinary citizens on the ground? Researcher and peacebuilder Séverine Autesserre joins Senior Correspondent Steve Scher to share stories of ordinary yet extraordinary individuals and organizations who are confronting violence in their communities effectively. She examines the well-intentioned but inherently flawed peace industry, and argues against the commonly held belief that building peace requires billions in aid or massive international interventions. Real, lasting peace, she explains, requires giving power to local citizens. With success stories from her book The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider’s Guide to Changing the World, you won’t want to miss this riveting conversation. Catch this enlightening episode—and stay in the know about what’s happening in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Séverine Autesserre is an award-winning author, peacebuilder, and researcher, as well as a Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author of The Trouble with the Congo and Peaceland, in addition to articles for publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy. Twitter @SeverineAR   Steve Scher is a podcaster, interviewer, and teacher. He worked in Seattle public radio for almost 30 years. He has taught at the University of Washington since 2009. He is Senior Correspondent for Town Hall Seattle’s In The Moment podcast.  Buy the Book: The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider's Guide to Changing the World Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation online click here. 

In the mid 2010s, the Ebola outbreak devastated West Africa, sending a message that diseases recognize no borders, political parties, or faiths. In this week’s episode, correspondent Kevin Kibet sits in conversation with poet and novelist Veronique Tadjo about her novel In the Company of Men, which presents a timely fable that illustrates the terrible extent of the Ebola epidemic, through the eyes of those affected in myriad ways. Beginning with two boys who venture from their village to hunt in a nearby forest and unwittingly return with the insidious disease, she explores the experiences of the doctor, the student who works as a volunteer gravedigger, the grandmother, and more in a series of moving snapshots. Tune in for this conversation, acutely relevant to our times in light of the coronavirus pandemic, that explores critical questions about how we cope with a global crisis and how we can combat fear and prejudice. Véronique Tadjo is a poet, novelist, academic, and artist from Côte d’Ivoire. She earned a doctorate in Black American Literature and Civilization from the Sorbonne, Paris IV, and went to the United States as a Fulbright scholar at Howard University in Washington, DC. She headed the French Department of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg until 2015. Her books have been translated into several languages, from The Blind Kingdom (1991) to The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda (2001) and Queen Pokou: Concerto for a Sacrifice (2005), which was awarded the Grand Prix de Littérature d’Afrique Noire in 2005. Kevin Kibet is a global villager, with Nandi, Kenyan, PanAfrican, and American influence. A curious soul, forever endeared by and applying self to justice. Buy the Book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/667090/in-the-company-of-men-by-veronique-tadjo/  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation online click here. 

In this week’s episode, correspondent and poet Shin Yu Pai shares another installment of Lyric World, now in its second year of programming. Lyric World engages poets in conversations about the concerns and themes that preoccupy their work. As part of Black History Month, Pai hosts poet and musician Gary Copeland Lilley in a dialogue about the creative and intellectual influences that have shaped his work. Gary Copeland Lilley is the author of eight books of poetry, the most recent being The Bushman’s Medicine Show, from Lost Horse Press (2017), and a chapbook, The Hog Killing, from Blue Horse Press (2018). He is originally from North Carolina and now lives in the Pacific Northwest. He has received the Washington DC Commission on the Arts Fellowship for Poetry. He is published in numerous anthologies and journals. Lilley is a Cave Canem Fellow. Shin Yu Pai is the author of ten books of poetry. Her work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Her essays and nonfiction writing have appeared in Tricycle, YES! Magazine, The Rumpus, City Arts, The Stranger, Medium, and others. Lyric World: Conversations with Contemporary Poets is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike. The series is supported by grants from the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture, Windrose Fund, and The Satterberg Foundation. Buy the Book: http://www.losthorsepress.org/catalog/the-bushmans-medicine-show/  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation online click here. 

Four decades ago, the areas around Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks sheltered the last few hundred surviving grizzlies in the Lower 48 states. Their population has surged to more than 1,500 under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, and this burgeoning number of grizzlies now collides with the increasingly populated landscape. In this week’s episode, Senior Correspondent Steve Scher is joined by Montana journalist Rob Chaney as he chronicles the resurgence of this charismatic species against the backdrop of America’s long history with the grizzly. Chaney explores how humans and bears have long shared space, but how that relationship has changed in light of cars whizzing through bear habitats, tourists checking Facebook for photo ops, and hunters seeking trophy prey. Join them for this conversation that captures the clash between groups with radically different visions—and stay in the know about what’s happening in this moment at Town Hall. Rob Chaney is a report for the Missoulian. A lifelong Montanan, he covers science and the environment. Steve Scher is a podcaster, interviewer, and teacher. He worked in Seattle public radio for almost 30 years. He has taught at the University of Washington since 2009. He is Senior Correspondent for Town Hall Seattle’s In The Moment podcast. Buy the Book: https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295747934/the-grizzly-in-the-driveway/  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

For decades, the conflict between Israel and Palestine has been one that has crossed borders and become of international interest. In this week’s episode, professors Jeremy Pressman and Mira Sucharov share, with singular knowledge, their point of view on the conflict—and the way forward. In conversation with Daniel C. Kurtzer, they examine the default use of military force on both sides. Pressman contends that this force has prevented peaceful resolutions in the past, and asserts that diplomacy is the only way forward, as he argues in his book The Sword Is Not Enough: Arabs, Israelis, and the Limits of Military Force. Sucharov brings personal experience from her book Borders and Belonging: A Memoir, vulnerably relating her search for a political and emotional home, one that led her to live in Israel for three years in her twenties. Join them for a raw and poignant conversation about conflict, diplomacy, and resolution—and stay in the know about what’s happening in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Jeremy Pressman is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of Middle East Studies at the University of Connecticut. He is author of Warring Friends: Alliance Restraint in International Politics and co-author of Point of No Return: The Deadly Struggle for Middle East Peace. Mira Sucharov is Professor of Political Science and University Chair of Teaching Innovation at Carleton University, Canada. She is author of Public Influence: A Guide to Op-Ed Writing and Social Media Engagement and The International Self: Psychoanalysis and the Search for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, and co-editor of Social Justice and Israel/Palestine: Foundational and Contemporary Debates and Methodology and Emotion in International Relations: Parsing the Passions. Daniel C. Kurtzer is Lecturer and the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University, and former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt. He is co-author of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East and The Peace Puzzle: America’s quest for Arab Israeli Peace, 1989–2011, and editor of Pathways To Peace: America and The Arab Israeli Conflict. Buy the Books: Borders and Belonging: A Memoir by Mira Sucharov and The Sword Is Not Enough: Arabs, Israelis and the Limits of Military Force by Jeremy Pressman Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation online click here. 

The rules of business are changing dramatically, says the Aspen Institute’s Judy Samuelson, and that means profound shifts in attitudes and mindsets that are redefining our notions of what constitutes business success. In this week’s episode with Senior Correspondent Steve Scher, she shares takeaways contained in her book The Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World. Based on her unique knowledge and insight, Samuelson lays out how hard-to-measure intangibles like reputation, trust, and loyalty are imposing new ways to assess risk and opportunity in investment and asset management. In our globalized era, she demonstrates how expectations of corporations are set far beyond the company gates–and why employees are both the best allies of the business and the new accountability mechanism, more so than consumers or investors. Don’t miss this powerful guide on how businesses are changing and what is needed to succeed in tomorrow’s economy—and stay in the know about what’s happening in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Judy Samuelson is founder and executive director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program and a vice president at the Aspen Institute. She previously worked in legislative affairs in California and banking in New York’s garment center and ran the Ford Foundation’s office of Program-Related Investments. Samuelson writes regularly for Quartz@Work, is a Bellagio Fellow, and a director of Financial Health Network. Steve Scher is a podcaster, interviewer, and teacher. He worked in Seattle public radio fro almost 30 years. He has taught at the University of Washington since 2009. He is Senior Correspondent for Town Hall Seattle’s In The Moment podcast. Buy the Book: The Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To make a donation or become a member click here. 

The number of Americans arrested, brought to court, and incarcerated has skyrocketed in recent decades. Criminal defendants come from all races and economic walks of life, but they experience punishment in vastly different ways. In this week’s episode, correspondent Marcus Harrison Green talks with sociologist Matthew Clair about his fieldwork in the Boston court system, uncovering how privilege and inequality play out in criminal court interactions. Clair’s book Privilege and Punishment: How Race and Class Matter in Criminal Court gathers his findings and conclusions, and shows how attempts to exercise legal rights often backfire on the poor and on working-class people of color. Stay in the know about what’s going on in this moment at Town Hall Seattle with this urgent conversation about the injustices perpetuated by the attorney-client relationship, and the reforms that are needed to correct them. Matthew Clair is assistant professor of sociology at Stanford University, where he holds a courtesy appointment at Stanford Law School. His research has been published in Criminology, Law & Social Inquiry, Social Science & Medicine, and Social Forces. Marcus Harrison Green is the publisher of the South Seattle Emerald, and a columnist with Crosscut. After an unfulfilling stint working for a Los Angeles based hedge-fund in his twenties, Green returned to his community determined to tell its true story, which led him to found the South Seattle Emerald. He was named one of Seattle’s most influential people by Seattle Magazine in 2016. Buy the Book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691194332/privilege-and-punishment  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

In this week’s episode, correspondent and poet Shin Yu Pai shares the fifth installment of Lyric World, featuring poet Arthur Sze in a conversation about Sze’s forthcoming new and collected poems volume, The Glass Constellation. Fusing elements of Chinese, Japanese, Native American, and various Western experimental traditions, Sze explores experience in all its multiplicities. The Glass Constellation is an invitation to immerse in a visionary body of work, mapping the evolution of one of our finest American poets. Arthur Sze has published ten books of poetry, including Sight Lines, which won the National Book Award. His new and collected poems, The Glass Constellation, will be published by Copper Canyon Press in April 2021. He has also published one book of Chinese poetry translations, The Silk Dragon. He is the recipient of many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and was the first poet laureate of Santa Fe, New Mexico Shin Yu Pai is the author of ten books of poetry. Her work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Her essays and nonfiction writing have appeared in Tricycle, YES! Magazine, The Rumpus, City Arts, The Stranger, Medium, and others. Music for today’s program was provided by Gao Ping. As a leading member of the “sixth generation” of Chinese composers, Gao Ping’s compositions, which fuse Western and Eastern idioms, have won wide acclaim throughout the world. His albums are available through the Naxos label. Lyric World: Conversations with Contemporary Poets is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike. The series is supported by grants from the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture, Windrose Fund, and The Satterberg Foundation. Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To make a donation or become a member click here. 

Medina Tenour Whiteman stands at the margins of whiteness and Islam. An Anglo-American born to Sufi converts, she feels perennially out of place—not fully at home in Western or Muslim cultures. In this week’s episode, Rabbi Elana Zaiman talks with writer and poet Medina Tenour Whiteman about her searingly honest memoir, The Invisible Muslim: Journeys Through Whiteness and Islam. They discuss being religious women, and Whiteman contemplates what it means to be an invisible Muslim, examining the pernicious effects of white Muslim privilege. They explore what Muslim identity can mean the world over. They invite us to a conversation about a life-long search for belonging, and the joys and crises of inhabiting more than one identity. Catch this nuanced episode—and stay in the know about what’s going on in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Medina Tenour Whiteman is a writer, poet, translator, and musician. She is the author of a collection of poetry, Love is a Traveller and We Are It’s Path, and Huma’s Travel Guide to Islamic Spain. She lives near Granada, Spain with her husband and three children. Elana Zaiman is a rabbi, chaplain, and author, the first woman rabbi from a family spanning six generations of rabbis. Her book, The Forever Letter: Writing What We Believe for Those We Love, was published in 2017. Her essays, nonfictions, and fictions have been published in numerous publications, and served for nine years as the Ethics and Spirituality columnist for Liv Fun magazine. Buy the Book: https://www.elliottbaybook.com/book/9781787383029  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To make a donation or become a member click here or text TOWN HALL to 44321. 

In this week’s episode, Senior Correspondent Steve Scher talks with historian Ruth Goodman, who joins us with a fascinating micro-history of how English women sparked a worldwide revolution from their kitchens. With support from her book The Domestic Revolution: How the Introduction of Coal Into Victorian Homes Changed Everything, Goodman argues that the transition to coal might have kick-started the Industrial Revolution. She traces the move from wood to coal in the mid-sixteenth century—from sooty trials and errors during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to the totally smog-clouded reign of Queen Victoria—and presents a pattern of innovation that emerged as women stoking the fires also stoked new global industries. With anecdotes from her own experiences managing a coal-fired household, Goodman shines a light on the power of domestic necessity. Don’t miss this engrossing conversation—and stay in the know about what’s going on in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Ruth Goodman is the author of multiple books on English domestic history, among them How to Be a Victorian. An historian of British life, she has presented a number of BBC television series, including Tudor Monastery Farm. She lives in the United Kingdom. Steve Scher is a podcaster, interviewer, and teacher. He worked in Seattle public radio fro almost 30 years. He has taught at the University of Washington since 2009. He is Senior Correspondent for Town Hall Seattle’s In The Moment podcast. Buy the Book: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631497636  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here or text TOWN HALL to 44321. 

In this week’s episode, Senior Correspondent Steve Scher talks with journalist Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, who joins us with a sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying tale of the Free Town Project, a town in New Hampshire, and bears. In A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears), Hongoltz-Hetling weaves a tale of the small town of Grafton, New Hampshire, and a group of libertarians’ plan to take Grafton over and completely eliminate its government. Unfortunately, the anything-goes atmosphere soon caught the attention of Grafton’s neighbors: the bears. Complete with gunplay, adventure, and backstabbing politicians, don’t miss this riveting conversation about what happens when a government disappears into the woods—and stay in the know about what’s going on in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling is a freelance journalist specializing in narrative features and investigative reporting. He was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, won a George Polk Award, and has been voted Journalist of the Year by the Maine Press Association, among numerous other honors. His work has appeared in Foreign Policy, USA Today, Popular Science, Atavist Magazine, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the Associated Press, and elsewhere. Steve Scher is a podcaster, interviewer, and teacher. He worked in Seattle public radio fro almost 30 years. He has taught at the University of Washington since 2009. He is Senior Correspondent for Town Hall Seattle’s In The Moment podcast. Buy the Book: https://www.elliottbaybook.com/book/9781541788510  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here or text TOWN HALL to 44321. 

In this week’s episode, Correspondent and Town Hall Digital Media Manager Jini Palmer talks with Puget Sound Energy’s Tyler O’Farrell about renewable energy. Town Hall is a PSE Powerful Partner, so for Energy Awareness Month in October, O’Farrell discusses the renewable energy programs at PSE that are designed to keep sustainability within reach. For those with electric power, he explores the solar choice, green power, and customer connected solar options; and for those with gas, he shares about the carbon balance option. Learn more about PSE and energy awareness—and stay in the know about what’s going on in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Tyler O’Farrell has been with Puget Sound Energy for more than 15 years with experience in Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, Performance Management, and Regulatory Affairs. Currently, as Product Manager for Voluntary Renewables, he oversees PSE’s Green Power, Solar Choice, and Carbon Balance programs with over 80,000 total customers participating and consistently ranks in the NREL’s top ten renewable energy programs in the country. O’Farrell is a graduate of Washington State University with a BA in Communications. Preserving the beautiful natural spaces and vibrant communities in our area are top priorities for Puget Sound Energy, which is why they created their PSE Powerful Partnerships. PSE realized that there are local nonprofits—like Town Hall—working towards similar goals, and they wanted to help with those efforts. Click here to find out more about PSE Powerful Partnerships. Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here or text TOWN HALL to 44321. 

In this week’s episode, Senior Correspondent Steve Scher talks with journalist and scholar Kevin C. O’Leary, who argues that the contemporary Republican Party is waging a counterrevolution against the core beliefs of the nation. With insights from his book Madison’s Sorrows: Today’s War on the Founders and America’s Liberal Ideal, he presents an extensive cultural history of the political revolution that he believes has surfaced alarming impulses to embrace exclusion and inequality. He harkens to the essence of America’s liberal heritage, which he submits has been destroyed by the Republican Party and unleashed an illiberal crusade against the ideals of the Founding Fathers. Don’t miss this lively conversation—and stay in the know about what’s going on in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Kevin C. O’Leary is a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California, Irvine and teaches in the political science department at Chapman University. A contributor to The American Prospect, he was the lead West Coast reporter for TIME, as well as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. His previous book, Saving Democracy: A Plan for Real Representation in America, was a finalist for the American Political Science Association’s Michael Harrington Award. Steve Scher is a podcaster, interviewer, and teacher. He worked in Seattle public radio for almost 30 years. He has taught at the University of Washington since 2009. He is Senior Correspondent for Town Hall Seattle’s In The Moment podcast. Buy the Book: https://www.elliottbaybook.com/book/9781643134345 Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To make a donation or become a member click here or text TOWN HALL to 44321. 

In this week’s episode, correspondent and poet Shin Yu Pai shares the fourth installment of Lyric World, featuring poet Yona Harvey in a conversation about Harvey’s newest book, You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love. Grounded deeply in the resistance of Black women, Harvey writes of ancestry, inheritance, and loss. Of Yona’s work, poet Afaa M. Weaver says, “Her voice is essential to making a cultural wholeness that would otherwise be impossible. This lyric, this unique, multimedia gift is evidence of an awakening only a few poets ever approach.” Yona Harvey is an American poet, professor, and Marvel Comics writer. Her first poetry collection, Hemming the Water, garnered Harvey the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Her work has been published and anthologized in numerous places, including Letters to the Future: Black WOMEN / Radical WRITING. She contributed to Marvel’s World of Wakanda with Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay. Shin Yu Pai is the author of ten books of poetry. Her work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Her essays and nonfiction writing have appeared in Tricycle, YES! Magazine, The Rumpus, City Arts, The Stranger, Medium, and others. Lyric World: Conversations with Contemporary Poets is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike. The series is supported by grants from the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture, Windrose Fund, Poets & Writers, and The Satterberg Foundation. Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here or text TOWN HALL to 44321. 

In this week’s episode, Correspondent Venice Buhain talks with Ambassador Wendy R. Sherman about her book Not for the Faint of Heart: Lessons in Courage, Power, and Persistence. Sherman brings listeners inside the negotiating room to show how to put diplomatic values to work in their own lives. With personal experiences, from her own life—from growing up in civil-rights-era Baltimore, to stints as a social worker, campaign manager, and business owner, to advising multiple presidents—she shares how she has relied on values like authenticity, acceptance of change, and commitment to the team. Join Wendy and Venice as they take us inside the world of international diplomacy—and stay in the know about what’s going on in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Ambassador Wendy R. Sherman is Senior Counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group and former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. She led the negotiating team that reached agreement on a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between the P5+1, the European Union, and Iran for which, among other diplomatic accomplishments, she was awarded the National Security Medal by President Barack Obama. You can follow her on Twitter @wendyrsherman. Venice Buhain has been a journalist based in Washington State for two decades. Her work has appeared on KING5.com, The Seattle Globalist, TVW News, AOL’s Patch, The Olympian, The Daily News in Longview, and the Eastside Journal in Bellevue. Buy the Book: https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/ambassador-wendy-r-sherman/not-for-the-faint-of-heart/9781568588148/?utm_expid=.OyywKgKNQfKo0ZgN1WBZtg.0&utm_referrer=  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here or text TOWN HALL to 44321. 

In this week’s episode, Senior Correspondent Steve Scher talks with Michael Schuman, who has been a foreign news correspondent in Asia for over two decades, to gain insight on the answer to a common question: What does China want? With insight from his book Superpower Interrupted: The Chinese History of the World, Schuman shares his expert opinion of how the Chinese view their own history, and posits that what China wants is a return to the superpower status it always had, but briefly lost. Catch this essential conversation—and stay in the know about what’s going on in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Michael Schuman has been a foreign correspondent in Asia for 23 years, first with The Wall Street Journal, and then as Time magazine’s international business correspondent based in Hong Kong and Beijing. He currently writes on a freelance basis for several publications: Bloomberg View, BusinessWeek, New York Times, and Forbes. You can follow him on Twitter @MichaelSchuman. Steve Scher is a podcaster, interviewer, and teacher. He worked in Seattle public radio for almost 30 years. He has taught at the University of Washington since 2009. He is Senior Correspondent for Town Hall Seattle’s In The Moment podcast. Buy the Book Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation online click here or text TOWN HALL to 44321.

In this week’s episode, correspondent Shaun Scott talks with acclaimed writer Calvin Baker about his new book A More Perfect Reunion: Race, Integration, and the Future of America. In this conversation about the bracing, necessary book, Baker argues that the only meaningful remedy to our civil rights efforts is integration: the full self-determination and participation of all African-Americans, and all other oppressed groups, in every facet of national life. Don’t miss this call to action in our revolutionary democracy—and stay in the know about what’s going on in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Calvin Baker is the author of four novels, including Grace and Dominion, which was a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Award. He teaches in Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts, and has also taught in the English Department at Yale University, the University of Leipzig, Long Island University, and more. His nonfiction work has appeared in Harper’s and the New York Times Magazine. Shaun Scott is a Seattle-based writer and historian whose reflections on race, cinema, and American spectacle have appeared in The Monarch Review and New Worker Magazine. He is the author of Something Better: Millennials and Late Capitalism at the Movies and Millennials and the Moments that Made Us: A Cultural History of the US from 1982-Present. Buy the Book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/calvin-baker/a-more-perfect-reunion/9781568589237/?lens=bold-type-books  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To make a donation online click here or text TOWN HALL to 44321. 

In this week’s episode, Senior Correspondent Steve Scher talks with poet and fellow correspondent Shin Yu Pai about her new book of poetry, ENSŌ. In this tenth collection, Pai presents a hybrid book and digital experience with insights on cultural hybridity, exchange, and appropriation; motherhood; and personal reflections on how systemic racism and misogyny have shaped her practice. Take a look inside the creative process of “one of the most thoughtful poets in the Northwest”—and stay in the know about what’s going on in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Shin Yu Pai is the author of ten books of poetry. Her work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, Romania, the United Kingdom, and Canada. In 2014, she was shortlisted for a Stranger Genius Award in Literature. She served as the fourth Poet Laureate of The City of Redmond from 2015 to 2017. She curates the Lyric World series for Town Hall. Steve Scher is a podcaster, broadcaster, writer, interviewer, and teacher. He is the former host of KUOW-FM’s Weekday and has taught interviewing at the University of Washington since 2009. Scher is also the host of the podcast series At Length with Steve Scher. Buy the Book: https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9780997395792/ens.aspxhttp://entreriosbooks.com/product/enso/ Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To make a donation online click here, or text TOWN HALL to 44321. 

In this week’s episode, correspondent and poet Shin Yu Pai shares the third installment of Lyric World, featuring poet Koon Woon. Koon explores the topic of displacement and the role that poetry can have in creating a sense of belonging and home. He reads from his book Water Chasing Water and speaks on his family’s history of immigration to the United States, as well as those who had to be left behind. He reflects on cultural identity and how he and family members adjusted to life in another country. Koon also talks about his experiences of living for decades in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. Born in a village near Canton, China, Koon Woon immigrated to Washington State in 1960. He earned a BA from Antioch University Seattle and studied at Fort Hays State University. He is the author of The Truth in Rented Rooms, winner of a Josephine Miles Award from PEN Oakland, and Water Chasing Water, winner of the 2014 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. His poetry appears in Premonitions: The Kaya Anthology of New Asian North American Poetry, among others. Woon is the publisher of Goldfish Press and the literary magazine Chrysanthemum. Shin Yu Pai is the author of nine books of poetry. Her work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Her essays and nonfiction writing have appeared in Tricycle, YES! Magazine, The Rumpus, City Arts, The Stranger, Medium, and others. Lyric World: Conversations with Contemporary Poets is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike. The series is supported by grants from the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture, Windrose Fund, Poets & Writers, and The Satterberg Foundation. Lyric World is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike. Music for this episode is provided by composer Paul Kikuchi. Additional music credits: Paul Kikuchi (compositions, field recordings, percussion); Rob Millis (electronics); Tari Nelson-Zagar (violin); Eyvind Kang (viola); Maria Scherer Wilson (cello). Presented by Town Hall Seattle.

In this week’s episode, correspondent and poet Shin Yu Pai introduces a second installment of Lyric World, featuring fellow poets Prageeta Sharma and afrose fatima ahmed. By sharing her own work on grief and grieving, Sharma explores the idea of imagined futures cut short and how a particular loss can awaken memories of previous grief. Sharma delves deeper in conversation with ahmed and Pai about the role of poetry in articulating and transcending complex grief. As our world cries out in grief, begin to process it with Pai, Sharma, and ahmed—and get an insider’s look and stay in the know about what’s going on in this moment at Town Hall Seattle. Prageeta Sharma is the author of the poetry collections Grief Sequence, Undergloom, Infamous Landscapes, The Opening Question, and Bliss to Fill. She is the founder of the conference Thinking Its Presence: Race, Creative Writing, Literary Studies and Art. A recipient of the 2010 Howard Foundation Award, she has taught at the University of Montana and now teaches at Pomona College. afrose fatima ahmed is a hybrid Texan-Washingtonian raised in the Tri-Cities who provides poetic soul guidance with her oracle deck “blood gold and honey.” She was a 2017 Jack Straw Writer and a 2018 GAP award recipient from Artist Trust. afrose comes to poetry as just one avenue for creating experiences of beauty and communion for herself and other people. Visit her website at  www.afrosefatimaahmed.com. Shin Yu Pai is the author of eight books of poetry. Her work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, The United Kingdom, and Canada. Her essays and nonfiction writing have appeared in Tricycle, YES! Magazine, The Rumpus, City Arts, The Stranger, Medium, and others. Lyric World: Conversations with Contemporary Poets is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike. The series is supported by grants from the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture, Windrose Fund, Poets & Writers, and The Satterberg Foundation. Presented by Town Hall Seattle.