While some spent Earth Day 2017 marching for science and others practicing a day of environmental service, young women, gender non-conforming youth, transgender youth and their allies gathered at South Seattle College to engage in the youth-led social justice Girlvolution conference.Continue reading “Girls on Fire” at Youth-Led Social Justice Conference→
I grew up understanding open mindedness was important and I tried to embody what that meant. Growing up in a society that loves binaries: good and bad; black and white; communist and capitalist; republican and democrat; I’ve found I didn’t even know what open mindedness meant. My ideas were becoming increasingly polarized and other points of view were becoming less understandable. It was not until college in an ethnic studies class where I was told by my professor that open mindedness is just as much about knowing ourselves as it is listening to others. Only by understanding how our own implicit bias shapes how we understand and process the world can we truly begin to listen to one another and grow together. This is what ethnic studies is all about. Continue reading What Ethnic Studies Means to Me→
I was interviewing a young woman on the University of Washington’s Red Square when people started running. We were talking about a man who ripped through the middle of her pro-immigrant banner. Within seconds, the atmosphere turned from public forum to survival. Fear spread across the faces of the crowd. Their eyes were wide open. It was like watching fish scatter after dropping a rock into the water: fast, scared, and reactionary. I didn’t understand why people ran for ten more minutes. I never heard a shot ring out.Continue reading An Inside Account of the UW Red Square Shooting→
“Maybe it’s the time of day, but the old King Donuts had a larger selection,” Ira Sacharoff said between bites, “but this is really good.”
It’s late afternoon on a Monday, and customers are finishing up laundry in the compact, clean laundromat portion of King Donuts, the iconic Rainier Beach triple threat, where you can get your teriyaki fix while waiting for your clothes to dry, then take a bear claw to go. Continue reading King Donuts 2.0→
On Earth Day this year, over 20,000 people showed up to the ‘March for Science’ in Seattle. Just before Mayor Murray was to speak, community members took the mic to deliver a statement. March organizers had policephysically carry a Block the Bunker activistoff the stage; she and a fellow activist were arrested. Block The Bunker was far from the only group with fundamental objections to how this March was planned. Another group, Women of Color Speak Out, published their experiencehere. Continue reading Those the “March for Science” Ignored→
(This interview originally appeared on The C is for Crank and has been republished with permission)
Last week, former mayor Mike McGinn took many in the local political community by surprise when heannouncedhe was running again for his old position. Although McGinn’s name had certainly circulated in the past as a potential challenger to Mayor Ed Murray, who defeated the then-incumbent in 2013, he always demurred when asked, calling the question of whether he planned to run “unanswerable.” It became answerable, it appears, after a man named Delvonn Heckard sued the mayor, alleging Murray had sexually abused him when Heckard was a teenager in the 1980s. McGinn announced his run with a press conference in his Greenwood backyard and the perplexing campaign slogan “Keep Seattle,” which he told me means “Keep Seattle for people.” I sat down with McGinn on Capitol Hill last week.Continue reading Interview With Mike McGinn: “We’re Not Managing the City for the People Who Are Here”→
I’m asked what I’m hopeful for What pushes me from the womb of my bed What keeps me warm and tethered in the storm outside I shrug in my apathy Continue reading Sunday Stew: A Cynic’s Song→
Amplifying the Authentic Narratives of South Seattle
