Reception and poetry reading by Naomi Shihab Nye, followed by conversation with Lena Khalaf Tuffaha.

In the early 1970s, Shawn Wong and group of young Asian American writers discovered the novel, "No-No Boy" by John Okada, in a used bookstore for fifty cents. Originally published in 1957, it had not sold out 15 years later. No one had read it and the author had died believing his novel was rejected and forgotten. Wong will share the rediscovery story of "No-No Boy" — how young Asian American writers urged a new audience to recognize the book’s importance and launched its journey from obscurity to canonical work in Asian American literature.

López Rivera has continued to energetically advocate an end to U.S. colonialism, and has resumed his role as an organizer, working to establish a holistic community center to train community organizers as well as working on educational and community-based projects to help the island recover from Hurricane Maria and its unjust $74 billion debt. López Rivera also became an accomplished painter in prison and continues to be a visual artist.

Join David Bachman, Professor of Political Science and former Chair of the China Study Program, at the Seattle Art Museum for a lecture about China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Much of the developed world sees the Belt and Road as a Chinese strategy and power play, leading to debt traps and Chinese imperialism. But China’s motives are multiple and while there are indeed significant downsides to the Belt and Road, it is filling a number of global needs and national aspirations of the countries China works with.

Join author and artist Jenny Odell in discussing the impact digital media has on our everyday lives. Tickets are FREE for students under 22!

Join writer Ariel Goldberg for a reading from "A Century", their current novel-in-progress, which imagines the often erased details of queer life.

Join The Department of Asian Languages and Literature for another dramatic recitation of a piece of classical Japanese literature. In this modern retelling of one of the most famous stories in Japanese samurai lore, the talented Kima Hotta will recite an adaptation of the novel Ninjō: Ataka no seki by Hiroaki Toda, which fleshes out the story for contemporary audiences and adds its own clever twist.

Scandinavian Studies professor Marianne Stecher will discuss Hans Christian Andersen’s futuristic fairy tales, which were inspired by science and technology. Stecher’s talk is the latest in the Scandinavian 30 series at the Nordic Museum, featuring 30-minutes talks by UW Scandinavian Studies faculty.