Community News Briefs & Events: Seattle

Learn Money Management
Learn how to manage your money and maintain good credit at "Sense and Sustainability: Personal Finance" from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9 at The Seattle Public Library, Capitol Hill Branch, 425 Harvard Ave. E.
The program is free and open to the public. No registration is required. Free parking is available in the branch garage.
Becky House of American Financial Solutions, a nonprofit credit counseling agency, will give a presentation on improving personal finances and maintaining good credit. Following the presentation, audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions.
For more information, call the branch at 206-684-4715.

Healthier Without Wheat
Dr. Stephen Wangen will discuss his book, "Healthier without Wheat: A New Understanding of Wheat Allergies, Celiac Disease and Non-Celiac Wheat Intolerance" from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 15 at The Seattle Public Library, Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Microsoft Auditorium, Level 1.
The program is free and open to the public. No registration is required. Parking will be available in the Central Library garage for a $5 special event rate.
"Healthier without Wheat" is about wheat allergies, celiac disease, and wheat intolerance. The book covers many of the health problems that are connected to wheat allergies and intolerance, as well as nutritional deficiencies associated with them.
Wangen is a medical doctor and specializes in digestive disorders and food allergies. He founded the Irritable Bowel Syndrome Treatment Center and the Center for Food Allergies. He is also the research director at the Innate Health Foundation. He lives in north Seattle.
For more information, call The Seattle Public Library at 206-386-4636.

It's No Longer Just Soul Food at 'Food as Art'
Conventional assumptions about traditional soul food will be challenged when 14 African American chefs and restaurateurs converge on Bell Harbor on April 18, 2009 for the Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas' (CD Forum) fifth annual Food as Art celebration. The comfort foods associated with the soul food genre are being augmented with spicy Afro-Caribbean cuisine, flavorful, organic vegan delights, savory African dishes and haute French, Spanish and Italian fare.
This annual food celebration showcases the strides African-American chefs and restaurateurs continue to make in Seattle. In addition to these established and celebrated chefs, Food as Art  will highlight the talents of private Chef Amadeus, Seattle tea guru Tracy Shafer (Tea Gallery) and two emerging culinary talents , Debbie Hatfield from Absolutely Cookin' and Makini Howell from the Café by Hillside Quickie. 
The event is from 6 to 11:30 p.m. Tickets sell out quickly and are $125 for general admission. Buy tickets by April 16th. Tickets are available online at Brown Paper Tickets, http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/50162 or by calling 1-800-838-3006. Tickets will not be sold at the door.

Wangari Maathai: 'The Challenge for Africa'
Author Wangari Maathai will be speaking at Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave. on Sunday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m.
In 2004, Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, but her impact on Africa's environmental and political landscape began years earlier and continues today. Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, which since has planted more than 30 million trees in Kenya through networks of rural women. She was elected to Kenya's Parliament in 2002 and appointed Deputy Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources in 2003. Now living in Nairobi, Maathai is the author of "The Challenge for Africa," which examines the complex and dynamic nature of her continent, offering "hard-headed hope" and realistic options for improvement that stress responsibility and accountability. Presented by the Town Hall Center for Civic Life, with Elliott Bay Book Company.
Tickets are $5 available at www.brownpapertickets.com, 800/838-3006 and at the door beginning at 6:30 pm.

Library Expands Foreign Language Access
The Seattle Public Library has expanded its Web site to include more information for its Vietnamese-, Russian-, Chinese- and Spanish-speaking patrons.
The information helps newcomers to the United States understand the services of The Seattle Public Library, as well as programs and materials offered in their native languages.
To reach the new world language Web pages, go to the Library Web site at www.spl.org and click on "Español (Spanish)," "Tiểng ViêÌ£t (Vietnamese)," "中文 (Chinese)"or "РуÑ