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We’re in this together: ‘Make Bosses Pay’ offers a liberatory, accessible path forward for workers — unions

By Jacob Schear | April 6, 2022

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Make Bosses Pay: Why We Need Unions’ By Eve Livingston | Pluto Books | 2021 | Paperback, $15 | Nonfiction, social justice | Available through Interlibrary Loan

As a new generation of workers finds itself staring down a lifetime of precarious, poorly paid work in the age of a deadly pandemic and limitless corporate power, the idea of unions has emerged as a potential antidote. But what can unions do for today's workers and do we need them? ...
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’Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen’ is an expansive but exclusionary examination of Black womanhood

By Leinani Lucas | March 30, 2022

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen: The Emotional Lives of Black Women’ By Inger Burnett-Zeigler | 2021 | Hardcover, $25 | Nonfiction, psychology | Available at the Seattle Public Library

In “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen: The Emotional Lives of Black Women,” Inger Burnett-Zeigler, a licensed clinical psychologist, provides a route through the trials and tribulations of being a Black woman in today’s society. Although Black women in America are often talked about as being strong, dependable and unbreakable, that perception has contributed to their deteriorating mental and physical health. Black women are both the highest-educated demographic in the United States and generally underpaid and undervalued in both the workplace and society at large. ...
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Who is Big Brother watching? New ‘1984’ graphic novel leaves proles, forward-minded fans out

By Katherine Luck | March 23, 2022

BOOK REVIEW: ‘1984: The Graphic Novel’ By George Orwell and Fido Nesti | 2021 | Hardcover, $22 | Fiction, dystopia | Available at the Seattle Public Library

In 1949, fresh from the horrors of World War II and the collapse of the totalitarian states of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, British author George Orwell published what is arguably the seminal dystopian novel of the 20th century: “1984.” ...
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A winter formal of discontent leads to heartbreaking high school schemes

By W. Barnett Marcus | March 16, 2022

ARTS REVIEW: ‘Teenage Dick’ By Mike Lew | Directed by Malika Oyetimein | Seattle Rep. Leo K. through April 2 | Tickets $55–$72

As live theater tests the waters of fully reopening, the safety of Shakespeare offers itself as a reliable pool of inspiration. It feels like everyone’s rehearsing a Henriad these days. The second-longest play in that cycle of kings, “Richard III,” is a fan favorite for its dark themes, gruesome endings and iconic lines, including “My kingdom for a horse!” Mike Lew’s adaptation, “Teenage Dick,” which opened on March 4 at Seattle Repertory Theatre, creates a kingdom in the English class and a cavalry at the Sadie Hawkins dance. ...
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Use your voice: Former Seattle Councilmember Nick Licata recalls his journey to politics

By Dave Gamrath | March 9, 2022

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Student Power, Democracy and Revolution in the Sixties’ By Nick Licata | Aug. 2021 | Hardcover, $95 | Nonfiction, memoir | Available at the Seattle Public Library

Nick Licata retired from the Seattle City Council in 2015 after 18 years of service. In his new memoir, “Student Power, Democracy and Revolution in the Sixties,” Licata tells the story of how he initially became politically active during college at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), a conservative school in north central Ohio. He was there during the tumultuous second half of the 1960s, when baby boomers were first becoming young adults, the Vietnam War was raging and a new student power movement was born. ...
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Interacting with art at the Frye Art Museum

By Ashley Archibald | March 2, 2022

A visitor to the Frye Art Museum interacts with “and watching thereunto” by Christopher Paul Jordan. The painting is constructed on a vinyl window and done in negative colors; by viewing the work of art through a phone camera’s “color inversion” setting, the colors show as planned. The exhibit at the Frye “In the Interim: Ritual Ground for a Future Black Archive” pairs Jordan’s work with Arnaldo James’s photographs; both Jordan and James identify as Black and are using this exhibit to present a world of shared experience across the African disapora. ...
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Design matters to all

By Gayle Clemans | March 2, 2022

A popular podcast becomes an anthology of insights from famous creatives

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People’
By Debbie Millman | 2022 | Hardcover, $60 | Nonfiction, design | Available at the Seattle Public Library ...
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Suitable shelters and philosophy takes on boats are fiction

By Dr. Wes Browning | February 23, 2022

Russia just had to remind us all that it’s still a nuclear power. Then they told us that they were having their nuclear forces conduct drills, I guess because you never know when you might need nuclear missiles those times when you are not invading Ukraine. The Associated Press article in the Seattle Times that brought us this information was as short on details as you would expect given that everything is up in the air at this moment (the morning of Friday, Feb. 18). ...
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In ‘Black Pulp,’ an academic exploration misses the authentic Black experience

By Leinani Lucas | February 23, 2022

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Black Pulp: Genre Fiction in the Shadow of Jim Crow’
By Brooks E. Hefner | 2021 | Paperback, $25 | Nonfiction, academic | Available via Interlibrary Loan

In “Black Pulp: Genre Fiction in the Shadow of Jim Crow,” James Madison University professor Brooks E. Hefner shares the history of pulp fiction by Black authors in the early 20th century. Hefner details the rise and fall of publishing houses and papers that focused on Black American genre fiction. ...
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It’s Sir Mix-a-Lot’s city; we’re just living here: Seattle’s hip-hop history makes for a compelling read

By Osasere Ewansiha | February 9, 2022

From the outside looking in, I admit that hip-hop is the last thing that comes to mind when I think of Seattle. Imagine my surprise when I learned, after reading “Emerald Street: A History of Hip-Hop,” that Seattle is home to not only a rich musical history past early ‘90s grunge, but also the foundations of hip-hop. ...
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