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Writers + Artists reading in Seattle, Tues. Dec 10
Join Cascadia Magazine tomorrow evening in Seattle, 6:30 pm Tues Dec. 10 for “Seattle Artists + Writers” at Vermillion on Capitol Hill. You’ll hear readings of new work online now at Cascadia Magazine by Jack Straw curator Anastacia-Renée; prose writer Kristen Millares Young; fiction writer Ruth Joffre; and poet Shankar Narayan. Each reading will be accompanied by a collection of images from four Seattle-based visual artists: painter and installation artist Carol Rashawnna Williams; artist, illustrator, and filmmaker Sarah Salcedo; artist, poet, and illustrator Clare Johnson; and Monyee Chau, an artist who works in a variety of mediums. Find out more here.
Funding for this project was made possible by a generous grant from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.
Seattle writers and artists together at Cascadia Magazine
In tandem with “Seattle Writers + Artists” evening at Vermillion on Tuesday December 10, Cascadia Magazine recently published the work of four Seattle-based writers and paired them with images from four Seattle visual artists:
Kristen Millares Young writes about bike commuting, working for the Seattle PI in its lasts days, and becoming herself as a writer in the essay “On Being a Reporter.” Sarah Salcedo created an original illustration for this essay, an image that expresses Kristen’s love for the newspaper that’s now a ghost of its former self.
Jack Straw poet Anastacia-Renee’s three poems explore desire, hunger, and the struggle to be an artist as a single black mother. Her poetry is paired with the art of Carol Rashawnna Williams, an artist whose paintings and installations highlight the struggle for racial equity and climate justice.
Ruth Joffre offers up two weird and wonderful flash fiction pieces, “One of the Lies I Tell My Children (#1 & #8),” which explore the anxieties and nightmares that accompany raising children today. Her stories find a perfect counterpart in Clare Johnson’s dark, quirky line art of anonymous cities and lonely houses.
Shankar Narayan’s four poems push back against cultural assimilation and embrace aspects of Indian American culture that set him apart and give him comfort: “…to be colonized means never to recognize/belonging” he observes. Shankar’s poetry is published in conversation with art by Monyee Chau, a Taiwanese/Cantonese American artist whose work explores similar issues of marginalization and the creation of an authentic identity.
Funding for this project was made possible by a generous grant from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.
An evening with the Fish Warriors in Toppenish
Cascadia Magazine was delighted to host our first public event outside Seattle last week at the Yakama Nation Cultural Center in Toppenish, Washington. The topic was the story of the Yakama fishers who fought for the right to salmon in the Columbia River fifty years ago. Yakama Nation Writer and poet Emily Washines talked about the project and interviewed David Sohappy, Jr., who spoke eloquently about his father’s involvement in the civil disobedience action and also about Yakama fishing traditions. Portland photographer Intisar Abioto spoke about her experiences taking a fantastic series of photos of the fishers and activists on the river, and there was also a screening of a short documentary about Yakama fishing camps on the Columbia River.
Thank you to Humanities Washington for a generous grant to make this free public event possible. See Emily and Intisar’s collaboration online here at Cascadia Magazine.
Oregon businesses prepare for boost in taxes for schools
OPB looks at how Oregon businesses (and school districts) are preparing for a major tax hike that will boost Oregon school budgets by $1 billion each year, an ambitious plan to turn around low graduation rates. The bill passed the Oregon legislature earlier this year despite a Republican walk-out. In related news, a big chunk of Portland’s tourism taxes on rooms and car rentals will now go toward homeless services and affordable housing. Meanwhile, state and local officials in Washington are preparing for cuts to transit and road projects as the future of I-976 slashing car registration fees works its way through the courts. And finally, Washington’s public lands commissioner is recommending a new home and auto insurance charge to pay for increasing wildfire costs.
Will Vancouver address racism in its public schools?
The Tyee reports that the Vancouver school board will consider a motion later this month that would change its policies directing administrators how respond to racist bullying by students. The motion follows several incidents in past year in which students and parents say the district responded inadequately and too slowly. At Crosscut, Donald King writes about the decline of black churches in Seattle, as high housing prices force more and more African American families out of the central district.
Digging for clues about earthquakes in central Washington
Northwest News Network documents how geologists are studying faults in southern and central Washington, and how these little-studied structures can result in powerful earthquakes. And OPB reports that it’s possible that past Cascadia megaquakes triggered major ruptures in California’s San Andreas fault.
Work could start soon on Trans Mountain pipeline
Work on the controversial expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline across British Columbia could start soon, Travis Lupick at the Georgia Straight reports. Edmonton Journal notes that British Columbia’s provincial government, which opposes the pipeline, and will increase tanker traffic seven times over in the Salish Sea, has one last appeal to Canada’s supreme court, but that opposition has basically run its course. Meanwhile, CBC reports that Trans Mountain is monitoring First Nations protestors such as Kanahus Manuel, who continue to engage in acts of civil disobedience against the pipeline cross their lands. And in related news, the Narwhal has an investigative report that find the province’s Clean BC electricity program often imports cheap power from 12 US states, many of which generate most of their energy in coal-fired plants.
Oregon landmarks built as Depression-era public works
The Oregonian profiles 10 landmarks of Oregon architecture that were built as part Depression-era public works programs such as the CCC and WPA–among the gems are Timberline Lodge and the Dee Wright Observatory. Meanwhile, writer and photographer Iskra Johnson documents the now-demolished Alaskan Way viaduct in Seattle, which she’s been taking photos of for 25 years. Seattle Times sketcher Gabriel Campanario profiles people who took up the city’s offer of free pieces of the demolished viaduct, and what it means to them.
Eugene’s family of choreographers
Eugene Weekly has a great feature on sisters Hannah and Ashley Bontrager, and their mother, Donna Bontrager, who are behind Ballet Fantastique, an innovative Eugene-based dance company that’s beginning to attract global attention.
How Seattle’s Kubota Garden offers a vision of multi-racial refuge
Alex Gallo-Brown has a lovely article up at Crosscut about south Seattle’s Kubota Garden, a public park that was originally build by a Japansese American family that was interned during the Second World War, and now offers a gorgeous refuge in one of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods. Meanwhile Paul Nelson (who’s also Cascadia Magazine’s board president) writes for the South Seattle Emerald about good news for ferns that had been dying off in the Seattle’s Seward Park. And Vancouver Sun reports that BC Parks’ reservation system for camping has been completely revamped.
Janice Lee: books are not products
Over at Vol 1. Brooklyn, Portland-based writer Janice Lee has a fantastic essay on the search for a publisher for her latest book. Friends encouraged her to seek a major east-coast agent or publisher, but her work proved to be too experimental for their tastes. After finding a small press for her book, Lee reflects on the broken system we have for the creation and dissemination of literature and art that doesn’t follow the rules: “We need to collectively imagine a framework outside of the one where humans are only identified through progress and capacity.”
Poetry by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha & Christine Fojas
Seattle-based poet Lena Khalaf Tuffaha has a gorgeous poem, “To Grieve for All Your Other Selves,” online at Cordite Poetry Review: “Much/ of what passes for memory is just hunger, taste buds posing as/ spurned lovers.” Meanwhile, at Ricepaper, find Vancouver poet Christine Fojas’ “The Woman on Fire,” a personal and intense ode to women who’ve died for men throughout history and literature:
“I was once princess
turned wife
turned servant
turned victim.
But now I spurn these names.”
That’s this week’s assortment of news, environmental reporting, arts, and culture from across the Cascadia bioregion. Have a great week, and hope to see some of you at Seattle Writers + Artists event 6:30 pm Tuesday December 10 at Vermillion in Seattle. –Andrew Engelson
Photo credits: Yakama event courtesy Intisar Abioto