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| photo: Libby Lewis/Seattle Arts & lectures | |
On October 29, Seattle Arts & Lectures welcomed Ta-Nehisi Coates (Between the World and Me, Spiegel & Grau), to its Literary/Arts series, and what a welcome it was! The original venue sold out, his talk was moved, the second venue sold out in record time, and 2,900 people got to experience a remarkable evening. Coates was in conversation with Vivian Phillips, chair of the Seattle Arts Commission. SAL's executive director, Ruth Dickey (who later said her feet wouldn't touch the ground for a week), concluded her introduction by citing Coates's advice to his son: "I never wanted you to be twice as good as them, so much as I have always wanted you to attack every day of your brief bright life in struggle. The people who must believe they are white can never be your measuring stick. I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world." She saluted Ta-Nehisi Coates as "the brilliant writer, the tireless seeker, the courageous struggler, the man who invites us all to awake from the dream and into the struggle." --Marilyn Dahl, editor, Shelf Awareness for Readers