› Kay Hall Events

As a professor of English with a specialty in modern poetry, Brian Reed became intrigued by the way poets across cultures and ages have written about birds. He is fascinated by the way the avian species has been a rich source of poetic inspiration. Reed, the Divisional Dean of the Humanities at the University of Washington, will take us on a visual and auditory exploration of this deep and creative relationship. He is a specialist in twentieth-and twenty-first century poetry…

Mike Veseth is editor of the award-winning The Wine Economist blog and author of four books on wine over the last decade: Wine Wars; Extreme Wine; Money, Taste & Wine: It’s Complicated; and most recently, Around the World in Eighty Wines. By profession, he is a political economist, and is professor emeritus of international political economy at the University of Puget Sound. His writings on wine and globalization have been widely praised, and he is a sought-after speaker at wine industry meetings around the world. Inspired by Jules Verne, he takes us on a mad global dash, collecting wines and their stories, not just to find the best wines, but to understand what they mean and why they are important to us. The lecture will be followed by a wine tasting hosted by Vashon wineries.

It started as a collaboration between two Tacoma artists who created a series of colorful broadsides featuring quotes by historical feminists tied to current political and social issues. The letterpress poster series was so successful that O’Leary and Spring created Dead Feminists, Historic Heroines in Living Color, a 2018 Pacific Northwest Award winning book using the original broadsides with archival photos and ephemera to describe the accomplishments of women like Eleanor Roosevelt, Rachel Carson, Harriet Tubman and Shirley Chisholm, with an inspiring foreword by writer Jill Lepore. Join us as they tell the story of this extraordinary collaboration, which continues to provide hope and inspiration through challenging times.

From smoky skies to shifting shorelines, climate change will affect our lives in many ways here in the Pacific Northwest. Heidi Roop is Lead Scientist for Science Communication at the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group. She will explore the range of observed and projected climate impacts here in our region, discuss the factors that hinder and motivate changes in political will and social acceptance of climate change, and suggest ways we can work together to prepare our communities for…

Paul Bannick is an extraordinary photographer who not only captures gorgeous images of birds in their daily lives, but also makes a compelling case for preserving the habitat that sustains them. He is especially drawn to owls, particularly snowy owls, which is the subject of his talk. “For many of us, they embody the essence of wilderness,” he says. “They are also important messengers in that they tell us by their presence or absence about the health of vast ecosystems in the Arctic that are experiencing the pressure of climate change.” The photographer and author of two best-selling books, Owl, A Year in the Lives of North American Owls, and The Owl and the Woodpecker, Bannick is a frequent keynote speaker at Audubon events, bird festivals, and conservation events across North America.

Stephen Jones is founder and director of the Bread Lab in the Skagit Valley, where scientists, bakers, chefs, farmers, activists, and others experiment with improved flavor, nutrition, and functionality of wheats, barley, and other small grains. Jones, who has a doctorate in genetics, works with his graduate students and staff to develop and breed wheat and other grains to be grown on small farms in the coastal West and beyond. The talk will cover the work of the Bread Lab—through…

Blaine Harden is the author of a trilogy of highly praised books about North Korea: Escape from Camp 14, The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot, and most recently King of Spies, which has been described as “a thrilling and jaw-droppingly good story of intrigue, daring, and depravity.” Harden is a veteran journalist whose 28 years as a correspondent for The Washington Post and his expertise on North Korea have made him a sought-after contributor to programs like PBS’ Frontline and many national and international publications. He will bring us up to date on the books’ characters, like Shin Dong-hyuk, the only person born in a North Korean prison camp to escape to the West, and share his views on the current relations between the Kim Jong Un regime and the U.S. Government.

What would you do if you knew that the shaking from an earthquake was about to rock your location in 15 seconds? Mouse Reusch, regional ShakeAlert coordinator with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) at the University of Washington, will discuss the development and future public release of the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning program. After earning her doctorate from Penn State University, Reusch worked for a lending library of seismometers. During that period she spent some 12 years traveling all…

Foss Miller was a young, Washington State University engineering graduate when in 1972 he went to work for K2 Skis on Vashon Island. Three years later he was head of his own business, by chance developing and manufacturing a few plastic bones for the University of Washington Medical School that cut, drilled, and felt like real bones. For the first time, students studying orthopedic surgery could practice techniques, a hands-on methodology found to be superior to the then-practice of watching…