"How can poetry expand our understanding of civic life? Poet and former Town Hall Artist-In-Residence Shin Yu Pai invites us to the first of her Lyric World discussions, exploring the role of poetry as it stokes our curiosity and helps to illuminate public conversations.

Thomas Pruiksma is both a poet and magician who brings together these two practices in his creative expression. He outlines the intersections of poetry and magic, highlighting how both crafts require a deep understanding of the structure of an illusion. Joining in conversation with Seattle-based author and poet Melanie Noel, Pruiksma illuminates the ways that poetry and magic can use careful conveyance of information to alternately obscure or reveal the truth. Together they ask us to suspend our judgment and embrace the not-knowing that defines these art forms.

After their discussion, sit in for a music and storytelling performance by African kora player and griot-trained percussionist Ibrahim Arsalan. Join Pruiksma and Noel for a conversation centered on the ways in which lyric language gives voice and attention to the human experience." (Promo Copy)