Suggested Readings on subjects related to the Panama Hotel Jazz Project. Join us October 13, 7pm in Slavonian Hall, Old Town Tacoma

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (Pierce County Library "Read" in 2012)
author Jamie Ford is coming to Tacoma Public Library Thursday September 17 for a reading and signing of his latest book: The Songs of Willow Frost
Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald
No No Boy by John Okada
Only What We Could Carry: the Japanese American Internment Experience by Lawson Fusao Inada

The Puyallup Festival of Books

There are events for this one from October 10-24, but the big ticket items are the authors speaking on the 23rd and 24th. The focus of the festival this year is World War II. Kirby Larsen, a Newberry Honor author, will be the the speaker on the 23rd. One of her books is Dash, which looks at a Japanese-American girl's experience with Camp Harmony. "Camp Harmony" was the ironic name used for the Puyallup fairgrounds when the US used the space for mass Japanese-American imprisonment during World War II. The speaker on the 24th is Anthony Doerr, who won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for his book All the Light We Cannot See. It's a book about a blind French girl and a young German boy who have different but parallel struggles that ultimately intersect in World War II. It's a great book, and it's really pretty special that Puyallup was able to bring this author to town. There's a small fee for some of the events in the festival, but the authors are probably worth it. http://www.puyallupfestivalofbooks.com/

Jamie Ford, author of "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" is at TPL this week

On October 13, Classical Tuesdays in Old Town is excited to present the Panama Hotel Jazz Project, featuring several of Seattle’s finest jazz musicians. The Project tells the story through words and music of the Japanese American experience as witnessed in Seattle’s International District (as it is now called) during World War II. As a community read, back in 2012, Pierce County Library had selected Jamie Ford’s “The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” which depicts the impact of the government’s relocation program on local residents.

What excellent timing that Tacoma Public Library has brought author Jamie Ford to our library and we can hear about his latest book and meet him – this Thursday evening.

This was just sent out by Tacoma Public Library:

Willow Frost, H. C. Weaver and Me
An evening with author Jamie Ford
Thursday, September 17 at 7 p.m.
Olympic Room, Main Library

In Jamie Ford's new novel, The Songs of Willow Frost, twelve-year-old William Eng, a Chinese American boy, runs away from an orphanage and embarks on a great journey when, after glimpsing an actress in a movie is convinced that the movie star is his mother, Liu Song. Ford's research for his novel brought him to the Tacoma Public Library and the all but forgotten H.C. Weaver Film Studio which, at the time was the third-largest freestanding film space in America. The Library had a wonderful collection of production shots by Gaston Lance, the studio's art director. This is the same studio which produced the recently rediscovered and restored The Eyes of the Totem.

Jamie Ford talks about The Songs of Willow Frost, the historical research behind the book, and the H.C. Weaver Studios. Free, no reservations. Seating is on a space available basis. Book signing follows. Information www.tacomalibrary.org

Presented in cooperation with Team Totem, the organization responsible for bringing back The Eyes of the Totem

David Domkoski
Community Relations Officer
Tacoma Public Library

Brass Band NW was great fun and a Rousing start to Classical Tuesdays' season

Brass Band NW September 2015   photos by Rosalie West

We brought our picnics indoors to Slavonian Hall on Tuesday to eat while listening to a rousing performance by Brass Band Northwest. Good energy and excellent musicianship were generated by every member of the ensemble. - Great fun to see the cornets one by one stand up and play a riff for us; nice solos by all. 

The Band played a great variety of music and styles for us. And when the men stood up and sang St Jame's Infirmary it sent shivers up my spine.

Full house for Brass Band NW

Slavonian Hall was packed with an overflow crowd (dare I say "peanut gallery"?) in the kitchen area.

overflow

 

Watch this column for information about the upcoming concert by the Panama Hotel Jazz Project on October 13 at 7:00pm in Slavonian Hall

Classical Tuesdays in Old Town starts our 11th Season with Heartfelt Thanks !

Thank you! To our major donors (*Eleven years of support!):

Old Town Business & Professional Association*    

Slavonian American Benevolent Society*              Tacoma Arts Commission*                                             

John Connelly Law Offices* 

The Spar, Kathy Manke*

Nicole Ancich, DMD, PLLC

Ted Brown Music Store

Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity 
Ginkgo Wine Tasting Room

Treos Coffee

                 SAI  Treos

A BIG SHOUTOUT to our many community contributors, big and small.

And a GROUP HUG to all those who volunteer time, chair-stacking skills and cookie-baking talents.               Thank you one and all!

September 8 Brass Band NW

 When & where:
Tuesday, September 8, 2015, 5:30pm

Old Town Park
2350 N. 30th St., Old Town Tacoma

Free/donations appreciated
All ages welcome

More information:
(253) 752-2135
Facebook event