Rainmaker Jini Palmer says, “[The Emerald] is a beacon for equity, uplifting communities and stories that are typically underrepresented in our media.”
by Amanda Sorell
Welcome to a new series: Meet Our Rainmakers!
Rainmakers are readers like you who make regular donations to the Emerald — their contributions help us amplify the authentic voices of the South End, and we couldn’t do it without them.
This weekend’s read is an essay by Brian Potter titled “What Makes Housing So Expensive?” In particular, it dives deeply into the costs of constructing a new single-family home and looks at where there might be opportunities to reduce costs.
In light of Minority Health Month in April, it is important to reflect on some of the major challenges for underrepresented communities in the health care field. Not only is there a lack of proper support for minority groups to access health care, but there is also a lack of representation for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color) among providers and leaders in health care careers. The discrimination that causes this doesn’t just start with the health care employment process; it begins well before. Disparities in the education system limit opportunities for minority groups, such as Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NH/PI), to succeed in the health care field.
The SPD will decide whose public art is or is not a crime.
by Carolyn Bick
Last June, a U.S. District Court judge issued an injunction barring the City of Seattle from enforcing its anti-graffiti ordinance. The case came before the courts as part of an ongoing suit involving protests against police violence in early 2021. The case specifically regards the messages written in chalk and charcoal on the East Precinct during the protests.
A county audit has found that staff shortages at King County’s juvenile detention center are causing youths in secure detention to be held in their cells for 14 hours a day, and that youths are staying longer in a facility meant to hold them for less than a month.
On April 20, iUrban Teen hosted an Earth Day event to celebrate its new community garden project at the Rainier Community Center, focused on environmental education for adolescents.
A chaotically sweet tale of a couple and their cat. A poetic documentary about creativity and the prison system. A celebration of a classic cowboy comedy.
Those are some of the stories that will play out on screen at the 21st annual Seattle Black Film Festival (SBFF) from April 25–28. Hosted at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute and Washington Hall in the Central District with a selection of movies available online, this year’s iteration of SBFF will include over 60 feature-length and short films. Organizers have pulled together work centered around the theme of carceral, spiritual, and imaginative liberation.
Following the first day of arguments in a new landmark Supreme Court case, fewer than a few hundred people gathered in the yard behind the William Kenzo Nakamura U.S. Courthouse on Monday, April 22, for a rally organized by the local coalition Services Not Sweeps to protest the criminalization of homelessness.
“Sex work is work”is a common rallying cry among sex workers’ rights activists that might finally be growing teeth now that the Strippers’ Bill of Rights was signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee on March 25.