Community Calendar

Thursday Sep 10th, 2026
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Three poets. Three voices in harmony.

Join us for an evening of poetry featuring visiting poet Pamela Wax*, author of 'Every Single Beast of My Heart'. Pamela will be reading from her new collection alongside two local poets, Mery Smith (Spokane's current Poet Laureate) and Laura Read (former Spokane Poet Laureate and author of 'The Serious World'). With work exploring the complexities of memory, identity, family, loss, connection and the strange and beautiful details of everyday life, this reading is sure to spark meaningful conversation.

*Pamela is the author of two previous poetry collections, Walking the Labyrinth (Main Street Rag, 2022) and Starter Mothers (Finishing Line Press, 2023). Her poems, published in over 60 literary journals, have received three Best of the Net nominations and awards from Crosswinds, Paterson Literary Review, Poets’ Billow, Oberon, the Ruben Rose Memorial Poetry Competition, and the Robinson Jeffers Tor House.

A mysterious necklace. A lost masterpiece. One very unexpected second chance.

Join Wishing Tree Books for an afternoon with Seth Panitch, author of 'Antique', in conversation with M. Anthony E. Clark, professor of Chinese history at Whitworth University.

If you're a fan of Antiques Roadshow + mysteries and a bit of magic this novel is for you! Set in the rarefied world of antiques, art, and auction houses, 'Antique' follows Grace Schaffer, a once-celebrated antique appraiser who has lost her career, marriage, and sense of identity. When she discovers a strange necklace that gives her an uncanny ability to predict auction prices, Grace is drawn into a dangerous search for a lost masterpiece—and back into the spotlight. With art-world intrigue and a touch of magical realism, Antique is an uplifting story about starting over, finding your own worth, and discovering the courage to imagine a new life.

Pack a picnic, bring a blanket or lawn chair, and join Wishing Tree Books for an evening of outdoor readings on our back lawn. Featuring local authors Maya Jewell Zeller, Leyna Krow, Laura Read, and Sharma Shields, this relaxed summer gathering celebrates the vibrant literary voices of our region. Meet the authors, enjoy stories and poetry, and connect with fellow book lovers.

For decades, environmental law in the United States has operated primarily within a conservation framework that regulates pollution and extraction while continuing to treat the natural world as property for human use. As climate disruption intensifies and biodiversity loss accelerates, this model is increasingly criticized as structurally incapable of preventing ecological harm at its roots. This lecture examines an emerging jurisprudential shift: the movement from protecting nature as an object of regulation to recognizing ecosystems as subjects of legal rights. Focusing on Rights of Nature as both a legal and philosophical development, the presentation will explore how this framework challenges anthropocentric assumptions embedded in conventional environmental and property law. It asks what follows when rivers, watersheds, forests, and other ecosystems are understood not merely as resources, but as living systems with interests the law should recognize and protect. The lecture will also consider how this shift reframes the relationship between human communities and the natural world, emphasizing that human health, stability, and flourishing are inseparable from the flourishing of the ecosystems on which communities depend. Alongside developments in Washington State, the talk will situate these questions within a broader global movement, tracing how jurisdictions and communities around the world are advancing new legal approaches to ecological governance. The result is not simply a new environmental doctrine, but a deeper challenge to the assumptions that have long structured modern law.