Beyond Protests, Humanize MENA Lives with Intentional Arts + Culture
Across the street from the (in)famous Rickshaw Lounge lies the unassuming 1 Million Cafe. I’ve lived in the area for over a decade and never knew it was Yemeni and that their chai is homebrewed with love; my iced version with oat milk presented a homey, unadulterated flavor unlike any chai I’ve had in Seattle.
How many of us walk by establishments owned by Middle Eastern people and never try them? Is it fear? Racism? Flavors unknown?
Waterfront Gems Worth Showing Off
Seattle is a city of hidden gems, with little mysteries and curiosities littered all over. Although my days of being a tourist are behind me, I still find myself wandering around the usual haunts—Pike Place, the Space Needle, and every stop along the Light Rail. But, today, I’ll be sharing ten of my favorite secret(ish) spots along the waterfront, in no particular order.
Sound Cinema: SIFF Downtown (Cinerama)
Before the brilliance of IMAX or the new immersive theater gimmicks of today, there was Cinerama. The technique was to use three synchronized projectors to run a film on a staggeringly large, curved, widescreen. It was a way to mimic how the human eye sees. The format began in 1952 and quickly spread in the 1960s. Seattle obtained its own Cinerama theater in 1963. Though, soon after, the format fell out of fashion and the suburban multiplexes kept people closer to home and away from these one-screen wonders. Seattle's theater languished and was ready to close for good when Microsoft co-founder and all around pop culture philanthropist Paul Allen saved and revamped our Cinerama.
SIFF 2026 Roundup: Zach’s Don’t-Sleep-on-These Picks
I anticipated many films this year whose descriptions piqued my interest. These films satisfied me for the most part, but there were a handful of films I did not really expect to knock me back in my seat. It’s rare to capture a film's essence in a descriptive paragraph or even a trailer. It is in the mind of the watcher that a film becomes a more than pleasant surprise or, even better, truly great. The following films surprised and delighted me.
Spanish Films at SIFF Explore Spectrums of Intersectional Experiences
This year's Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) boasts a fantastic assortment of Spanish language films. Not only that, there are also two films in Basque, a language and a people whose ancestral lands span a portion of Spain and France.
Funnily enough, though, the three Spanish-language films that really excited me this year all come from Mexico. Like Mexico itself, these films are unique to their places and diverse in their storytelling. They take place in the ancient forests of untold beauty, the city with its grit and glamor, and the vast plains where the rancheros roam.
3 SIFF Films Challenge Perceptions of Bureaucracy
At this year's Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) there are a number of films that show us the depth and dehumanizing nature of bureaucratic systems, from the idealistic investigations of police officers accused of wrongdoing down to a cloistered community attempting to figure out if an outsider is who he says he is. We even get a look at what is the first taste many of us have of the strange beast of bureaucracy: high school.
Parker’s Pages: Project Hail Mary
Friends, please allow me to peel away from our Puget Sound authors to bring you my latest and greatest obsession: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Unless you’ve been living under a rock—or the spring fever haze here in the PNW—you’ve probably heard about Project Hail Mary (2026), the newest addition to Ryan Gosling’s filmography, and, in my opinion, quite possibly the best space movie of the last decade (sorry Dune). The film adaptation is spectacular (I watched it three times in theaters), and I definitely recommend you check it out when it starts streaming if you didn’t have the pleasure of seeing it on its big screen run.
Noveltease Illustrates Our Splendidly Fluid Selves with ‘Orlando’
I was obviously intrigued when I heard that Noveltease Theatre, Seattle’s literary burlesque company who blend burlesque, dance, and theater storytelling, were putting on an adaptation of Orlando. I was curious how Noveltease would interpret this dense literary text into visual language and choreography. And yet, speaking with the production’s director, Alyza DelPan-Monley, it quickly became clear how intuitive it was to make a burlesque version of the story.
To Seattle, With Autistic Love
Growing up in the South, stigmas can run wild, branding you. Queer? Hide that shit. Autistic? Mask it at all costs. I learned to let people perceive me like a shadow. I showed enough of myself to let people get a sense of me without letting anyone in too deep.
![The Divided Line: Juno [Part 1]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/65456cf1d440cc19dd37c744/ab6f9f63-58c3-459b-825f-4766d73f1ba6/pexels-alesustinau-bombed+Ukrainian+building+-+Calista+Robbins.jpg)
The Divided Line: Juno [Part 1]
The Divided Line RETURNS.
It had come on suddenly, the sky cracking open with a bolt of electricity and a sharp clap of thunder.
And how fitting a night for it to strike. Nature’s encore of the bombs that’d burst mid-evening. Now the rain smothered the smoking debris and washed clean the bloodied rubble.
Juno tapped the screen of her phone to wake it, heart pounding with nerve-addled hope in the fleeting moments before it illuminated. Hope that Atticus’ name might be on the screen with two words trailing it.
SIFF 2026: Bigger, Queerer, Wilder, and More Inclusive Than Ever
The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is here at last! The 10-day celebration of cinema starts May 7 and closes on May 17. This year, the festival's physical locations feel like they will keep us in the heart of everything—all four venues are within a reasonable walking distance of each other. There are the three remaining SIFF theaters: the Uptown, Downtown, Film Center, and PACCAR IMAX Theater at Pacific Science Center serves as the fourth. The festival brings together film lovers and filmmakers in a raucous cavalcade of films from around the world and right here at home.
Cadence Video Poetry Fest Inspires Interdependence with Blended Media
It was a warm and springlike day in Capitol Hill, but not even the good weather could deter the creative community from showing up for the Cadence Video Poetry Festival, which has been running yearly in Seattle during National Poetry Month since 2018. This was Day 3 of in-person screenings, and the event, titled proof that we were here, was about to begin.
‘The Orca Show’ is the Perimenopausal Fever Dream We Deserve
Let’s be clear: Society treats the onset of menopause like a slow-motion car crash into a nursing home. Menopausal women are expected to go quietly, perhaps draped in a drab beige sheet, clutching a bottle of magnesium oil and apologizing for their sudden lack of utility. But Aysan Celik isn't interested in apologies or beige aesthetics. In The Orca Show, Celik takes the change of life and dunks it headfirst into the freezing depths of the PNW. It turns out, if you want to understand why you’re currently possessed by the spirit of a 5-ton apex predator, you have to look at the only other mammalian girly who loses her period at forty: the orca.
Evergreen Style: Prairie Underground
While Earth Month has been celebrated worldwide in April for more than 50 years, the fashion industry’s responsibility to the planet extends far beyond a single month. At Prairie Underground, a fashion label designed and manufactured in Seattle for over 20 years, sustainability is not a momentary focus but an everyday practice. Camilla Eckersley, one of its co-founders, is committed to creating an industry that is fair, fun, and environmentally responsible.
Perennial Conventions: Spring Awakening
Welcome to Spring! The season featuring wet earth, chatty birds, wardrobe uncertainty, and soon…babies, babies, babies. Both a season on its own as well as a transitionary period. Winter fitfully thawing into Summer as the frigid rot fertilizes the new growth.
Soft Life, Hard Lessons: No More Dry Biscuits
I have realized that my heart, the very center of my desire, has the amazing capacity to recognize beauty in more than one mirror. I find myself in a season I never expected: navigating deep feelings while standing firmly on newly discovered ground. This wasn’t a planned destination; I didn’t set out to audition hearts or be out here all in my feels. But here we are! As a woman who has been refined by the scorching fires of two divorces, I have realized that healing doesn't make your heart smaller—it makes it more discerning.
Sound Cinema: Bainbridge Cinemas
Bainbridge Cinemas caters to a wide demographic. It is meant to be a theater that offers broad audience fare so that those that live on Bainbridge Island do not have to make a trek to the mainland if they want to see the latest releases on the big screen. Like most theaters, the theatrical window can be a bit tricky to manage, but in the old sense of the theater experience, if it plays, it stays.
Parker’s Pages: Schrader’s Chord
Author Scott Leeds lives in the Pacific Northwest, and just like many of the other authors I have covered before, his work perfectly encapsulated what it feels like to live and be in Seattle and its neighboring cities. There’s a certain way that writers from the PNW write about the rain, the fog, and the dark. Leeds is no different, and effortlessly brings Seattle to life.
Noveltease Arouses, Enlightens with Intersectional Literary Burlesque
If you believe burlesque isn’t for you or you’ve never attended a show before, Noveltease offers an experience that highlights the intersection of literature, dance, music, and history in a small venue, creating an intimacy that provides multisensory entertainment. I left feeling good, emboldened, and creative. And though glamorous clothes were shed, the message of the evening—particularly within the selected poems—was that of reclamation, self-affirmation, and pleasure without shame or exploitation.
Pro Tips for Trans* Survival in Trying Times
Here, in the Puget Sound bubble, it is easy to lose focus of what we are fighting against and fighting for; sometimes the bad stuff sort of feels like it is happening out there, and that in our blue bubble, we are untouchable. But this isn’t true. Backslides set a precedent for more backslides. It is important to stay vigilant, to offer what you can to people who are not privileged to live in blue areas, and to know how to protect yourself.
