Voices

GoFundWho? More Equitable Ways to Crowdfund in a Crisis

Platforms like GoFundMe are burdened by bias. During the pandemic, we can all be more intentional with our giving.

by Marcus Harrison Green

The dire health and financial consequences of the coronavirus have music shops on life support, restaurants clawing for survival, truckers desperately seeking personal protective gear, and essential workers pleading for help with rent. Facing immediate emergency and stay-home orders, many are turning to online giving platforms that can provide a rapid funding source and a gimcrack bridge between subsistence and destitution. Continue reading GoFundWho? More Equitable Ways to Crowdfund in a Crisis →

Community

Rainier Beach Community Pays Tribute to Conner Dassa-Holland

by Ari Robin McKenna and Makayla Miles

When Conner Dassa-Holland was in middle school at Orca K–8, his English teacher there, Donte Felder, would often present students with two questions:

“What is your story? What is your future?”

Years later, Donte would run into Conner from time to time in South Seattle, where they both lived. Usually, after getting an earful of Conner’s recent achievements, he would ask Conner what had become a predictable question:

“What is your story? What is your future?”

Responses varied over the years. Having spent both 7th and 8th grade in Donte’s English classrooms, Conner was ready with a variety of off-the-cuff answers over the years.

Donte remembers their final exchange:

“What is your story? What is your future?”

“Change the world. Our systems are wrong.”

“How?”

“I’ll figure that out later, but one step at a time.”

Continue reading Rainier Beach Community Pays Tribute to Conner Dassa-Holland →
News

Esther “Little Dove” John: Faithless Elector or Trump Resistor?

by Chetanya Robinson

Four years ago Esther “Little Dove” John, then 64, accomplished something she had wanted to do since junior high. She became a member of the electoral college, and in December 2016, joined 538 others across the country to choose the next president of the United States.

John, a longtime Beacon Hill community member, artist and activist whose friends call her Dove, never imagined her choice would cause a ripple that would reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Members of the electoral college are expected to vote for whoever wins the popular vote in their states. But in 2016, ten electors across the country tried, and seven succeeded, in casting a vote for someone else. It was the largest such revolt since 1808.

Continue reading Esther “Little Dove” John: Faithless Elector or Trump Resistor? →
Community

Neighborhood Check-In: Beacon Hill

by Jessie McKenna

This is the second in our series of articles checking in on the neighborhoods of South Seattle, produced by community members living within them. Read our first, a Rainier Beach and Dunlap check-in, here.

Per the new norm in the era of COVID quarantine, I don’t see people out on Beacon Ave as much or at the coffee shops, restaurants and grocery stores like I normally would, and I miss my community — our interactions and checking in with each other, sharing news and resources. I miss being connected to my neighborhood in a way that feels organic and authentic (vs. awkward and/or virtual). 

I’m grateful for the online realm where my friends and neighbors are sharing stories and information, but nothing beats face-to-face conversation and we’re not getting as many of those these days. But I caught up with some neighborhood folx to check in on them one-on-one (virtually), and then later we arranged a time for me to snap their pics from a safe distance. 

Continue reading Neighborhood Check-In: Beacon Hill →
News

Bill to Create Public Emergency Ordinance to Restrict Encampment Sweeps Set to Be Introduced at Seattle City Council on May 18

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by Carolyn Bick

A bill that would create a public emergency ordinance to restrict the City of Seattle’s ability to sweep encampments during the current novel coronavirus crisis will be introduced to the Seattle City Council on Monday, May 18, with a vote to be taken on May 25, the Emerald has learned.

Continue reading Bill to Create Public Emergency Ordinance to Restrict Encampment Sweeps Set to Be Introduced at Seattle City Council on May 18 →
News

As County Opens More Non-Congregate Shelter to Prevent Spread of COVID-19, City Plans to Remove Two More Encampments

by Erica C. Barnett

(This article previously appeared on The C is for Crank and has been reprinted with permission)

Nearly two years after King County first announced that it planned to open a modular shelter for people experiencing homelessness on county-owned property in Interbay, the project is almost ready to open for a new purpose: Providing non-congregate shelter for between 45 and 50 homeless men over 55 from the St. Martin de Porres shelter, run by Catholic Community Services. The modular buildings, which are essentially trailers with windows, fans, and high-walled cubicles to provide privacy and protection from disease transmission between the four men who will share each unit, were originally supposed to be dorm-style shelters housing up to eight people on beds or cots.

Continue reading As County Opens More Non-Congregate Shelter to Prevent Spread of COVID-19, City Plans to Remove Two More Encampments →
Arts & Culture

LANGSTON and Wa Na Wari Celebrate Seattle Hip-Hop’s Past, Present, and Future

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by Beverly Aarons

East Coast, West Coast, Bronx and Compton, this is what most fans think of when pondering hip-hop history. But what many don’t realize is that Seattle has played an important role in the maturity of a genre that has grown from the urban streets to the global scene. And Seattle hip-hop has its own unique story and sound. To illuminate that fact and celebrate Black Music Month, arts organizations LANGSTON and Wa Na Wari have partnered for 2(06) The Break. The seven episode series will put a local ‘spin’ on the live-streaming DJ sessions popularized by cultural icons like Questlove and DJ D-Nice via social media for the past two months. Each week, Jazmyn Scott, a Seattle hip-hop supporter and co-curator of the 2015 Legacy of Seattle Hip-Hop exhibit at MOHAI, will pair two Pacific Northwest hip-hop DJs to collaboratively program and record a set composed exclusively of songs by local hip-hop artists of a specific era, from the 1980s to the present. 

Continue reading LANGSTON and Wa Na Wari Celebrate Seattle Hip-Hop’s Past, Present, and Future →
News

Basketball Pro Sterling Carter Returns to South Seattle as Head Coach of Cleveland High’s Boys Basketball Team

by Mark Van Streefkerk

Sterling Carter, the new head coach of Cleveland STEM High School Boys Basketball Team, is no stranger to Seattle’s Metro League; in fact, he’s a product of it. He attended Rainier Beach High School before transferring to Franklin High as a sophomore. As a senior, the point guard was part of the Quakers’ 2009 championship team. Carter played division one basketball at Seattle University and Purdue, then went on to play professionally in Germany from 2015–2016.  

Continue reading Basketball Pro Sterling Carter Returns to South Seattle as Head Coach of Cleveland High’s Boys Basketball Team →
News

UPDATE: Sen. Patty Murray Not Present to Vote on Bipartisan Amendment That Would Have Increased Online Privacy

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by Carolyn Bick

Washington State Sen. Patty Murray (D) was among the four United States senators who didn’t vote on a bipartisan amendment that would have prevented law enforcement agencies from obtaining Americans’ internet search histories and web browsing activities without a warrant.

The amendment to H.R. 6172 needed 60 in-person votes to pass, and failed by one vote, according to Gizmodo. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and Ben Sasse (R-NE) were the other three senators who did not vote, though Alexander is currently in self-isolation, after a member of his staff tested positive for COVID-19.

Continue reading UPDATE: Sen. Patty Murray Not Present to Vote on Bipartisan Amendment That Would Have Increased Online Privacy →
Voices

Life on the Margins Episode 2: The Better Angels of the COVID-19 Pandemic

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by Enrique Cerna, Jini Palmer, and Marcus Harrison Green

Amid the death and turmoil of the coronavirus pandemic, people are stepping up to aid their community with humanity and compassion. We introduce you to coffee shop owner Luis Rodriguez and volunteer Maria Lamarca Anderson who show us why giving is so important in these difficult times. Plus, we begin a new segment “For Real Though” that examines society’s absurdities, ridiculousness, and injustices that are leaving us in a state of disbelief, and making us ask “but, for real though?”

Continue reading Life on the Margins Episode 2: The Better Angels of the COVID-19 Pandemic →

Amplifying the Authentic Narratives of South Seattle

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