Digital Program
Original music inspired by 3 local authors….. InkAloud!
Original music inspired by 3 local authors….. InkAloud!
The Bushwick Book Club Seattle
presents
InkAloud! 2025
Nine musicians! Three authors! One magical night!
December 6, 2025
at Hugo House
Hosted by Wes Weddell
Curated by Kristen Millares Young
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Featuring Readings & Musical Performances from
(Click name for primary link, * = first Bushwick appearance for musicians, ^ = lyrics included below)
Rights to all song lyrics ©/℗ the individual artists, reprinted here with permission
Jodi-Ann Burey
Author, Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work
Jess Pillay
Facebook Instagram YouTube Bandcamp
Bridget Quigg^
Facebook Instagram YouTube
Shaun Crawford
Facebook Instagram YouTube SoundCloud
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Author: Something About Living
Fae Wiedenhoeft
Facebook1 Facebook2 Instagram1 Instagram2 YouTube Bandcamp1 Bandcamp2
Intisaar
Facebook Instagram Spotify Bandcamp
Abdallah (Abde) Elshafei*^
Instagram1 Instagram2
Rena Priest
Author, POSITIVELY UNCIVILIZED
Caskey Russell*^
Instagram Bandcamp
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2025-2026 “Escape Plan” Mainstage Season at Hugo House & online
Thank you, Bushwick Members!
PERFORMER-PROVIDED LYRICS
Rights to all song lyrics ©/℗ the individual artists, reprinted here—exactly as submitted—with permission
Bridget Quigg
Authenticity
—
Authenticity, elusive every day, I search for ways to find it
Underneath my skin my soul life begins, the answers in every moment
Carving out a way to validate my intuition, oooh
To say, this is mine and I am fine, I’m going to claim it
Oooooh…
Authenticity, to be deeply free, living in my alignment
Lonesome clarity and bravery, beyond all mainstream
My truest friend, right in the end, my greatest teacher, oh
It may look strange, it’s not from my brain, but this is how I feel most sane
Ooooh…
Oh say, can you see, I am truly free, what others see, is my purity, ooooh
Kind to my heart, honest from the start, staying inside my own dream, oooooh
Being unafraid, these things unpaid, so valuable to me
Won’t walk away, I sit and stay, and let all be
Oooooh…
Authenticity, always calling, with each clue you send me
To feel the day, send doubt away, it’s my heart you are mending
Giving all I am to all I am, moment to moment, oh
This ungainly world, can’t rule this girl, and I know it, oooh
—
Abdallah (Abde) Elshafei
Shattered Glass
—
Ceasefire Now
Free Palestine
Kim Schrier doesn’t care about the
Palestinian Child
A three by four foot handmade flag
These were our first Rally Signs
—
Salaam, my friends
No one is listening
Why aren’t you screaming like me?
Why aren’t you calling our leaders?
Have you seen the bodies?
Parts of Human Beings
—
Why aren’t you calling our leaders?
Have you seen the children
Tiny parts of human beings
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Shattered Glass
Shattered Dreams
Broken bones
Broken wings
The songbird sits too tired to sing
In her home in Falastin
—
The songbird sits too tired to sing
In her tent in Falastin
—
The Sniper sits
On the hill
Where our grandparents used to dwell
Protected by a Wall of Hate
And the Entire United States
—
The Sniper’s scope
Trained and cold
Gazes down on the city below
A small child with a flag
The sniper’s bullet
And a grave
—
A small child with a flag
The Sniper’s Bullet
And a grave
—
(Musical Interlude)
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What once was up
Now is down
Homes of rubble strewn on the ground
We lift our pot and turn it upside down
Pass the plates around
—
We lift our pot of seasoned rice
Cauliflower and qidra spice
Israel steals our land
They steal our food
But they can’t steal our sumud
—
Israel steals our land
They steal our food
But they can’t steal our sumud
—
Shattered Glass
Shattered Dreams
Broken bones
Broken wings
The songbird sits too tired to sing
In her home in Falastin
—
The songbird sits too tired to sing
In her tent in Falastin
Caskey Russell
River of Years
—
A longhouse from her past
She stands outside the frame
Strangers live there now
But the ghosts remain
Calling her down the river of years
—
I’m coming homeward
Caught in the past
Drowning in memories
We knew would never last
So, throw me a line
I’ll swim against the tide
I’m coming home again
Just give me more time
—
Veins flow to the sea
Through a net of memories
Old voices call to her
In the silver of a stream
Calling her down the river of years
—
I’m coming homeward
Caught in the past
Drowning in memories
We knew would never last
So, throw me a line
I’ll swim against the tide
I’m coming home again
Just give me more time
—
The thing about memory is
It’s both wild and tame
scars will fade
but the pain remains.
Small rituals in our lives
to savor and reframe
some words are lost
but the magic’s still the same
—
I’m coming homeward
Caught in the past
Drowning in memories
We knew would never last
So, throw me a line
I’ll swim against the tide
I’m coming home again
Just give me more time
—
Carrie Jennings
For The Health of the Whole
—
how to heal when so many of us
don’t feel like enough
how to heal the despair that tares at our bones
from feeling alone
how to heal with our hearts behind the wheel
a pen in her hand, to take back her land
—
little pieces of the universe glowing in space
little pieces of the universe showing its shape
—
part of me and part of you
we give and take, we rearrange
all of us can treat what’s poisonous
if together we’re brave, to love unafraid
—
little pieces of the universe glowing in space
little pieces of the universe showing its shape
—
let our wisest parts chart the course
let our reverence grow
for the health of the whole
for the health of the whole
for the health of the whole
for the health of the whole
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