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Ninety Days: Fiction by Corinne Manning
It’s Pride Month, and if you’d rather not sit for the interminable corporate-sponsored Pride parades and Starbucks-Amazon-Wells Fargo-approved rainbow flag-laden events, at least do one thing. Read Corinne Manning’s story “Ninety Days,” at Cascadia Magazine. It’s an intense, funny, and brutally honest look at the end of a gender-fluid relationship that pretty much follows no rules. It’s a long story. But you’re a Cascadia Magazine reader, and you make time for great writing, right? Read the full story here. Oh, and the art by Seattle artist Mita Mahato? Yay!!
Chaos in Oregon capitol over cap & trade bill
Despite having a majority in the state legislature, Oregon Democrats can’t seem to pass a landmark cap & trade bill to limit carbon emissions in the state, OPB reports. After Republicans fled the state for a second time this year, Democrats were unable to come up with a quorum, and now the Senate president, Peter Courtney, says there aren’t enough votes to pass the bill, prompting a loud outcry from the bill’s supporters, according to the Salem Reporter. What’s unclear is if the walkout by the GOP killed the bill, or if it was already dead before they fled.
Bracing for another summer of smoke in Cascadia
The new norm for Pacific Northwest summers seems to be smoky skies, at least based on the previous two years. Although we’re just barely stepping out of June, Zoya Teirstein from the Grist talks about the preparations that are underway in Seattle to create five public spaces to offer refuge from days of terrible air quality. Meanwhile, National Observer reports that some residents of central British Columbia are even beginning to move elsewhere in response to the mental and physical toll of smoke exposure.
A new high for local indigenous pot shop in BC
The Tyee profiles Kure Cannabis Society, a pot shop in Chilliwack, BC, which opened its doors on National Indigenous Peoples Day and became the first Indigenous-owned legal cannabis business in BC. Other First Nations chiefs have expressed interest in the model and opening their own shops. For more on racial equity in the legal cannabis industry, check out this feature published last year at Cascadia Magazine.
What’s in an orca’s name?
Mark Leiren-Young, an author, director, and podcast host, wrote an opinion piece for Crosscut, Orcas: Call Them By their Names about the power of calling orcas by real names rather than numbers, reminding us of Tahlequah, the orca mother, and her tour of grief.
“Names are an invitation to care,” writes Leiren-Young. To read more about Tahlequah and her calf, read Paul Nelson’s poem published last year at Cascadia Magazine.
An impending crisis for the aging population in WA?
The Keiro Northwest Rehabilitation and Care Center in Seattle will be closing down, leaving a hole in the Asian and Pacific Islander elderly community. Austin Jenkins from OPB covers how, in general, Washington nursing homes have been struggling from a Medicaid shortfall, new regulations, difficulties with staff retention, and a rising minimum wage.
Hope for endangered Indigenous languages
Let the Languages Live is an international conference held in Victoria, BC this week focusing on revitalizing global Indigenous languages. Sto:lo Nation educator Ethel Gardner will be attending with elder Siyamiyateliyot, (also known as Elizabeth Phillips), the only fluent speaker of critically endangered Coast Salish language, Halq’emeylem.
Pass the popcorn please
Take movie night into the mellow summer air with outdoor movie screenings throughout Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver.
An interview with Sierra Golden
Sierra Golden, a Washington-based writer born in Alaska, talks with Poetry Northwest about how working in commercial fishing and living on boats are focal to her writing. “It just happened. They were the poems that I was writing and people liked them and I liked fishing. So, I just kept writing about it.” Give the full interview a read here.
That’s today’s assortment of news, arts, and culture curated and written up by Eun Hye Kim. Have a great evening, and we’ll see you again tomorrow.