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Meet Cascadia Magazine’s board of directors
Casadia Magazine–a non-profit publication dedicated to quality journalism, photography, fiction, essays, and poetry–passed a big milestone last week.
We held our first board meeting and took formal steps to create a non-profit registered in Washington state. This is a big deal! It’s the first step towards full federal 501(c)(3) non-profit status, which will eventually allow our US readers to make their contributions tax-deductible, as well as help us qualify for more grant funding. It’s a huge step toward making Cascadia Magazine and this newsletter a financially sustainable organization dedicated to great writing from across the Cascadia bioregion.
Many thanks to our four initial board members:
Paul Nelson (board president) is a poet and interviewer who founded SPLAB (Seattle Poetics Lab) and the Cascadia Poetry Festival. Among his published books are A Time Before Slaughter, American Sentences and American Prophets.
He lives in Seattle.
Lynda Prince (board secretary) is the founding publisher of The City (San Francisco) and has served on the boards of a wide variety of literacy and arts organizations, as well as helping raise funds for the Vancouver Writers Festival.
She lives in Vancouver, BC
Jae Hill (board treasurer) is a professional land use planner with fifteen years of experience across the Western United States. He serves on the board of the Puget Sound Section of the American Planning Association, and on the Advisory Board of the Sun Valley Institute. He lives in Redmond, WA.
Derrick O’Keefe is a writer, editor, and social justice activist. He’s the co-founder of Ricochet Media, a bilingual online publication covering Canadian and international news and politics. Derrick volunteers with a number of community and advocacy organizations–he is a founding member of the Vancouver Tenants Union and a former co-chair of the Canadian Peace Alliance.
He lives in Vancouver, BC.
At their first meeting, the board adopted the organization’s articles, bylaws, and conflict of interest policy and appointed Andrew Engelson as executive director. In the next weeks we’ll be applying for WA nonprofit status and launching our Spring Fundraising Drive. Stay tuned!
We continue to work on expanding and diversifying our board. If you’re interested in volunteering or know someone who’d be a good fit, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Seattle’s HIV Hope
Here at Cascadia Magazine, we’re excited that Niki Stojnic’s recent feature on efforts by Seattle’s Fred Hutch center to find a cure for HIV was suddenly relevant after the news that a second person has been cured of HIV using a complex bone marrow transplant process.
To help get that story to a wider audience, we’ve partnered with the online news site Crosscut to re-publish the story, which you can read here.
Controversy over transgender rights in Vancouver
The oldest rape center in Vancouver, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, has been stripped of city funding because of its refusal to assist transgender women, the Vancouver Sun reports. Meanwhile Star Vancouver reports that trans activists who have worked on the issue are facing a backlash of threats and harassment.
Portland approves plan to allow more housing
In an attempt to deal with rising housing costs, the Portland city council this week narrowly approved a measure that would rezone 93 percent of the city’s land to allow up to 4 units per lot, according to Portland Tribune. Meanwhile, the day after Seattle approved upzones to about 6 percent of the city’s land, Jon Talton at the Seattle Times noted the measure won’t fix high housing costs on its own, but it’s a start.
More money for Cascadia volcano monitoring
Crosscut reports that the new US federal budget allocates $55 million in new funding to monitor the sleeping volcanoes of the Cascades in Oregon and Washington–but it’s still not clear how the money will be spent. Meanwhile, the Canadian Press has a travel article about the remote northwest BC village of Gitwinksikw, near Mount Tseax, which was the last BC volcano to erupt–in 1780.
Making banking easier for legal cannabis businesses
Eugene Weekly reports on how legal cannabis businesses face big hurdles setting up bank accounts, and a federal bill sponsored by Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Earl Blumenauer would make that process easier. Meanwhile, the WA state senate passed a bill that would vacate nearly all previous marijuana convictions in the state.
Will Oregon’s strippers change employment status?
Willamette Week looks at the conflict brewing among Oregon’s strippers over whether to be treated as employees or remain as independent contractors. Workers at Oregon’s 71 strip clubs are debating whether to be treated as employees (and qualify for benefits and to be able sue for workplace harassment) outweighs the flexibility of being freelance.
Celebrating Oregon’s women-owned small presses
Powell’s Book Blog highlights seven independent women-owned book publishers located in Oregon, including Calyx, Hawthorne Books & Tavern Books. Next week, one of the US’s biggest conferences for writers and publishers, AWP, is coming to Portland. There will be a ton of events off-site, including the Northwest Micropress Fair on Saturday, March 30 from 10 am to 6 pm at the Ace Hotel. On hand will be Entre Ríos Books, Scablands Books, Chin Music Press, and many others.
“Mother Tongue,” poetry by Channdika Thayver
At Ricepaper, read BC poet Channdika Thayver’s “Mother Tongue,” an evocation of childhood in Sri Lanka:
“I follow the sound of anklet bells
Deeper and deeper
Into this green
Praying
For just a glimpse
Of her black-brown skin”
Read the complete poem here. That’s today’s collection of news, arts, environmental reporting, and poetry from across the Cascadia bioregion. Have a great evening! –Andrew Engelson Photo credits: Glacier Peak by Walter Siegmund via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0, researcher Keith Jerome courtesy Fred Hutch, Union Jack’s strip club sign by Ann Larie Valentine via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0.