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Podcast | A WA couple’s struggle to stay housed around Puget Sound
Sandra Mears rented in Seattle for years – until she and her partner had to leave their home because it was getting torn down. They moved to a spot in Snohomish, where they could go to the farmers market, walk to restaurants and feel a sense of community. Subscribe...
Spokane downtown Pride mural isn’t going anywhere, community vows
This story was republished with permission from RANGE Media. For 24 hours the intersection in front of Riverfront Park transformed into something akin to a block party as the Pride flag mural was restored to its original glory. The mural, which has been a frequent target of vandalism — as recently as last week — and even arson, was designed by queer Spokane artist Tiffany Patterson as part of the Asphalt Arts program run by Spokane Arts and funded by the city of Spokane.
Meet the team behind the visual artistry of Black Arts Legacies
In every Black Arts Legacies profile we aim to reveal the essence of an artist — their work and history, of course, but also their image and sound, their community and consequence, and what it feels like to be in their company. We strive to render each complex human as fully and vibrantly as possible.
Seattle Public Schools postpones next step in school closures
The Seattle School Board has postponed for two weeks its vote on the district budget, following a series of public meetings on the district’s plan to close 20 K-5 schools. Seattle Public Schools heard from parents, teachers and students at four community meetings to share details about the plan for a system of “well-resourced schools.” The school board had been scheduled to vote on the budget on Monday, but the decision has been postponed until June 26. The district said on Monday that the meeting had been postponed so they had more time to incorporate public feedback and because of the shooting last week outside of Garfield High School.
Podcast | Author Patrick Radden Keefe on the ethics of true crime
The appetite for true crime is more insatiable than ever, but audiences, authors and podcast producers are also grappling with the ethics of the genre. Patrick Radden Keefe, author of books including Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Family and Say Nothing: A True Story of Memory and Murder in Northern Ireland, has made a career out of telling nuanced stories about unconscionable acts and the people who commit them.
Watch: Riz Rollins
The dance floor and church aren’t all that different. Both serve as places of community, connection, personal enlightenment and poetic beauty. Electronic music and gospel speak to the spirit, and souls are lost and found on the grimy club floor just as often as they are between church pews.
ArtSEA: A ‘Phantom Flag’ drained of its color at the Frye
Manila-born and Oakland-based artist Stephanie Syjuco made the piece — “Phantom Flag” — in 2017 after President Donald J. Trump rescinded Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA), legislation that protected undocumented people who had been brought into the United States as children (his rescission has since been overturned). As a professor at UC Berkeley and an immigrant from the Philippines, Syjuco saw the anguish the repeal brought to her students and transformed it into the flag.
Inside Seattle’s political clash over equitable development money
The drama began late Friday afternoon before the three-day Memorial Day weekend. Seattle City Councilmember Maritza Rivera had introduced a technical amendment to a technical budget bill that spurred intense backlash from dozens of Black, Native, Latino and Asian community leaders and hundreds of their community members, along with housing and service providers, religious leaders and more.
Young Washingtonians talk about why they may not vote in 2024
In 2020, the matchup between Biden and former President Donald Trump was an emotional election during a stressful period in the nation’s history. Young voters motivated by issues like climate change, racial injustice and the COVID-19 pandemic voted in record numbers – more than half of registered voters aged 18-29 turned in a ballot – according to several political advocacy groups.
Your Last Meal | The Leftovers with Dan Pashman
Dan was a guest on Your Last Meal in 2017, so host Rachel Belle checks in to see if his last meal has changed over the past seven years. Then, a speed round! Dan talks about the biggest challenge of writing a cookbook, his carb-on-carb recipe for pasta pizza, and his dream birthday cake.
Seattle veterans clinic faces complaints over leaks, ventilation
A loud whoosh brought Cortez Hopkins out of his office. Two ceiling tiles had crashed down where moments before a staffer had sat packing up records. Water trickled down as Hopkins snapped pictures of the damage. Hopkins and others were working overtime in the logistics office of the Veterans Affairs...
Podcast | Finding space with the Seattle UFO Network
We’re talking aliens – and community – ahead of World UFO Day. People generally celebrate World UFO Day on July 2 – though historically the celebration has also been held on June 24, thanks to a 1947 event involving a pilot’s report of nine flying objects near Mount Rainier.
Washington's latest attempt at graffiti cleanup: drones
Chris “Crick” Lont was in his early 20s when he started creating graffiti and was charged with destruction of property. The first thing he wrote with an aerosol can was BABS, for no particular reason besides thinking the letters were really cool. “How the letters were and how...
Canadian, U.S. post-pandemic travel trends are skipping the Point
Few places in the Pacific Northwest were more disrupted by the pandemic than Point Roberts, Washington. The extended closure of the U.S./Canada border to nonessential crossings cut off peninsular Point Roberts, an exclave, from the U.S. mainland. While life has returned to normal for most of us, the rebound is still tenuous in Washington’s most fascinating border town.
Podcast | The past and future of American democracy with Slate
Historian Heather Cox Richardson, author of Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, points out a central tension in American history: The founding fathers penned the idea of equality before the law, but as white male property owners, they could always have meant to exclude some people from participating in their new government.
New Central WA districts spark drama as the 2024 election revs up
Para leer este artículo en español, haga clic aquí. Ana Ruiz Kennedy thought she would be making a second run for Franklin County Commissioner this year. She would be competing under a district-based system, a result of a May 2022 settlement of a lawsuit against the county under the state’s Voting Rights Act. Her 2020 election bid — as Ana Ruiz Peralta — for Franklin County Commissioner, in which she won the Latino-majority precincts but lost the seat overall to her opponent, Rocky Mullen, was at the center of that lawsuit.
Mossback’s Northwest | The “Bird Woman” and an ode to ornithology
When my late father’s eyesight was failing, he could no longer make out birds from his porch. He called them “little brown flitteroonies.” And that’s what birds are for many people: fast-moving bundles of feathers. A few, of course, are well-known, if not always loved: crows, seagulls, pigeons, Canada geese: birds known for cawing, honking or prolific pooping.
Podcast | How a Seattle teacher taught a generation to love birds
In the early 1900s, pioneering educator Adelaide Lowry Pollock was the first woman to be named principal of a Seattle grade school. A lifelong love of birds dominated her curriculum. Her students went on birding field trips, mapped birds’ nests, researched bird behaviors, learned bird songs and even built elaborate birdhouses.
Watch: Cipher Goings
On a recent episode of So You Think You Can Dance, Seattle tap dancer Cipher Goings appeared before the judging panel in a made-for-TV room with poise beyond his 23 years. Auditioning to a portion of Burna Boy’s Afrobeat track “On Form,” Goings gracefully spun, shook and leapt across the wood floor, his rapid-fire taps building upon the song’s rhythmic complexity, adding beats and pauses with the balls and heels of his feet. The judges ultimately (and unwisely) decided to pass on Goings, but his appearance on SYTYCD marked an important moment for the young tap dancer: representing his community on a national platform.
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