Guest Curator Daniel Tam-Claiborne: "Diaspora & Belonging"

In recognition of the 250th anniversary of the United States, The Seattle Public Library's Fall 2026 Guest Curator Daniel Tam-Claiborne invites Seattle audiences to reflect on the many diasporas that shape our collective story—past, present, and still unfolding. Across three evenings aligned with significant cultural moments, writers, artists, scholars, and community leaders come together to explore the friction and fertility between heritage and assimilation: what is preserved, what is transformed, and what new forms of richness emerge when cultures meet.

Each program spotlights a distinct community—East African, Southeast Asian, and Nordic—while opening space for broader conversations about allyship, solidarity, and shared futures. Through literature, journalism, film, music, and interdisciplinary dialogue, the series celebrates contributions that are often underrecognized yet deeply woven into the civic fabric of the Pacific Northwest.

Hosted in partnership with local cultural organizations and community anchors, these gatherings are both celebratory and reflective: an invitation to listen closely, honor lived experience, and consider how stories of migration, memory, and belonging continue to redefine what America is—and who it is for.

About the Curator:

Daniel Tam-Claiborne is a multiracial author, multimedia producer, and nonprofit director. His debut novel, “Transplants,” was a finalist for the 2023 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. A 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, he has also received fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Poets & Writers, Bread Loaf, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Swatch Art Peace Hotel, and others. Daniel holds degrees from Oberlin College, Yale University, and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

This program is supported by Seattle's Office of Arts & Culture, The Gary and Connie Kunis Foundation, The Seattle Public Library Foundation, and The Seattle Times. Free and reduced access supported by 4Culture.