Throughout Women’s History Month the Emerald will be featuring profiles of local women who have left an indelible impact on the King County area.
On June 1, 1981, Cindy Domingo’s life would change forever. On that day, her brother Silme Domingo and his fellow union officer, Gene Viernes, were gunned down in broad daylight at their Pioneer Square union hall. At the time, Cindy was a staff member at the national headquarters of KDP – Union of Democratic Filipinos – in Oakland. A KDP staffer escorted her on the first plane back home to Seattle and she never left. Continue reading Women’s History Month: Cindy Domingo→
He’s a small business advocate for the city of Seattle in the Office of Economic Development. But on top of his full-time job, he is also an entrepreneur, a data scientist, a brother, a son, a brother-in-law, a friend, and soon to be a husband. Continue reading Domonique Meeks: Bringing the Soul Back to Seattle→
Cecile Hansen’s pursuit of justice for the Duwamish people began in 1974. She was a housewife in her early 30s, living in Tukwila and raising three daughters, when her younger brother, Manny Oliver, came by, mad as all get out.
In 1951 when Donald Dean Haley graduated from Jefferson Davis Parish Training Colored School in Roanoke, Louisiana, his cousin Daniel Haley in Seattle asked him what he planned to do. Don answered, “Work in the rice field with Dad.” He was ever so wrong.
The Royal Room dinner crowd eagerly awaited the evening’s performance. A couple minutes past the seven-thirty start time, a tall man with glasses took the stage and grabbed hold of a microphone. He introduced himself as Alex Guilbert, the organizer and producer of Piano Starts Here, a bimonthly piano-focused performance featuring the eclectic works of influential pianists over the past century.
There are many ways front people try to connect with their audience. For some, it could be a sunny song about tequila and the beach. For others, maybe a short skirt lures listeners. But for Shaina Shepherd, lead singer of the Seattle-based band BEARAXE, the connection is rooted in stories of resilience.
The notes of a Tlingit warrior song reverberated through the Bethaday Community Learning Center. The song, explained the singer, was passed down by Native sisters in British Columbia, Canada, and was meant to affirm Native survival and honor the gathered audience’s presence on Native land. It was also meant to ensure that the evening’s three panelists—all women of color DJs—could speak from a place of power.
Every year a huge celebration for Vietnamese veterans is held in Orange County, California. My grandfather, a veteran of the Vietnam War and proud member of the Vietnamese community, watches it religiously, staring intensely at the TV set. The pride on his face is evident as the color guard marches on stage carrying a bright yellow flag emblazoned with three red stripes.
He changes the channel to watch news about Vietnam’s state of affairs. Today it’s a mix between President Barack Obama’s recent visit to eat Pho with Anthony Bourdain and the arrests of more native journalists and bloggers, their faces forming a mosaic as the network illustrates the scale of the crackdown.
