Tacoma Reads: Author Talk with Josh Tuininga | Wednesday, Oct. 7 | Tacoma Public Library Main Branch, 6–7:30 p.m.

All October long, we at Peaks & Pints are pairing Tacoma Arts Month happenings with beers from our 13-door cooler — because art deserves a pint after the applause, and beer tastes better when it carries a story from the stage, the gallery, or the street.

Tonight, storytelling takes center stage. Tacoma Reads — the city’s annual, mayor-selected community reading program presented by the City of Tacoma and Tacoma Public Library — invites us to explore a shared set of books each year as a citywide conversation about identity, justice, and connection. For 2025, Mayor Victoria Woodards chose See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur, along with companion titles for teens and children that share its theme of revolutionary love.

One of those titles, Josh Tuininga’s We Are Not Strangers, steps into the spotlight tonight. The graphic novel paints a true story of friendship between a Jewish immigrant and a Japanese American grocer in WWII Seattle — a visual symphony of courage, compassion, and moral clarity rendered in bold ink and soft humanity. Tuininga joins readers to discuss how art and storytelling can rebuild empathy in divided times.

Cooler Pairing: Rodenbach Alexander
After the author talk, and you have dropped off the young adults, join us at Peaks & Pints and savor Rodenbach Alexander — a masterwork of Flanders red ale aged in oak foeders with sour cherries. Tart yet tender, rich yet restrained, it hums with the same balance of history and heart that runs through Tuininga’s pages. It’s a beer that reminds us that complexity is a virtue — and that beauty, like empathy, often takes time to ferment.

LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory