The word “accountability” seems impossible to avoid for anyone paying attention. Repeatedly, people with power abuse their position. Repeatedly, communities clamor for accountability, a just outcome for all affected persons, and satisfying solutions that will excise the rot from which harm festers and breeds. It is difficult not to feel disillusioned by the usual wishy-washy or dismissive responses, feigned ignorance, and lack of material progress in terms of repairing harm and promoting safety. How are we supposed to hold people accountable, so to speak, if they won’t take accountability?

An examination of our cultural rejection of humanity’s interconnectedness with each other, the ecosystem, and various natural cycles for the sake of endless exponential growth and parasitic profit margins. Putting life, death, and internal inclinations into perspective through the cyclical nature of the seasons. And questioning the need to appear evergreen - a resource ready for use - always in a state of doing, just to get by.

Drums rolled from the brick alleyways and converged upon the square, each musician followed by a small mass of people. They carried things with them: Bits of furniture and fragments of wood. Dresser drawers and desk tops. One group hoisted a billboard overhead from one of the Upper City’s tech institutions. 

One of the greatest joys about fashion is finding the perfect fit. Yet for fat or plus-size shoppers, that joy is rare, often overshadowed by an exhausting search for options that barely exist.
Earlier this year, in partnership with Seattle Restored, the Seattle Fall Mall emerged as a pop-up community space in Downtown Seattle where being fat or plus-size was centered and celebrated.
For eight months, the founders—Amber and Alyss Seelig, Candace Frank, and Kwame Phillips-Solomon—brought together local artists and fashion designers who challenge industry norms through body positivity and collective liberation.

Their exhibit opened to the public for a one-day event on Saturday, November 15 at Studio 18 Artist Collective. “This is a very historically [sic] arts building. They used to throw raves here in the ‘90s, early 2000s,” Reinhardt stated. The building is tucked beside train tracks underneath busy roadways—empty and bustling all at once. At the top of a thin staircase was the gallery opening, alive with visitors and music.

Each femme featured their own unique prop or presentation. Some read Queer theory, some read Sappho, and some read two books at once. The queens who weren’t reading were reapplying their makeup, doing the splits, singing Chappell Roan, or giving flowers out to the crowd. To gain their favor, contestants would flirt with the audience through notes, suggestive gestures, handfed strawberries, and at one point a collar-and-leash lead.

I think Trans* people should be in control of their own stories the same way I believe that any community should be in control of their own stories. This isn’t to say that other writers can’t include Trans* characters in their stories—they absolutely should—but that Trans* folks should be the ones to own the Trans* narrative. We should decide what is an authentic recounting of our own experiences. No one else knows the experience like we do, and when others take over our stories, they tell it wrong, boiling down the Trans* experience to stereotypes: focusing on surgery, making their Trans* characters completely androgynous, or minimizing the experiences of dysphoria.

Corey Skullcrusher, an artist with the Waiting Room, appeared in full aristocratic flamboyance to accompany their “monstrosity.” From dress to wig to bloody neck, Skullcrusher embodied beheaded nobility. The presence of such elegance brought forward a message of resistance. Skullcrusher explained that the guillotine was historically the most humane way to oust those who were abusing power. While the golden cardboard guillotine may be a bit campy and cheeky, “it’s very specifically a message.”

The strike comes in response to years of unsuccessful bargaining sessions in which Starbucks dismissed their workers’ concerns, chief among them proper staffing and increased wages. A key issue in this strike is Starbucks’ liberal use of union-busting tactics. SBWU has filed over one thousand ULPs (unfair labor practice suits), citing hundreds of unresolved labor law violations such as retaliatory firings, withholding tips, store closures, and unfair staffing cuts.

As the FIFA World Cup looms on the horizon, Seattleites are proactively bracing their communities and neighborhoods for impact. Organizations such as the CID Coalition, Stop the Sweeps, the Seattle Solidarity Budget, and more launched the Protect Our Pitch 206 Campaign, a collective movement aiming to intercept the harm that accompanies mega sporting events. 

Now that we have finally left behind a dreadfully hot summer, gardeners all over the Puget Sound will be adding a layer of mulch to their soil and taking delicate plants indoors, while others, like me, will be keeping a careful eye on their indoor plants and making sure the heater is set low. Although we are about to move out of the ripening season for many of our beloved local Washington fruit (sweet Honeycrisp apple, how I will miss you!), that doesn’t mean that the Evergreen State’s farms and gardens will be empty or that there won’t be any gardening opportunities ahead for all of you green thumbs! If you’re hoping to keep your head in the gardening game, you need not look further than your own neighborhood.  

The bitter adage, “Seattle isn’t what it used to be,” recently increased in circulation after the shocking news of the Crocodile shuttering the doors of Here-After and Madame Lou’s. In their statement, the Crocodile asserted that they are committed to the longevity of their main stage—unfortunately, it comes at the cost of their smaller comedy and music venues.

“People on food stamps are lazy!” A phrase I and many others have heard too often. In the summer of 2019, I was in my 2nd year at the Seattle Aquarium, managing a little over 400 community partnerships, serving on several boards and committees, and I had just become the newest member of the Washington State Environmental Justice Task Force. 

I was also on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits. Food stamps. 

On the evening of Monday October 27, actors, theater crew, directors, and producers (along with their families and friends) gathered at Town Hall Seattle for The Gregorys. Twenty-five years of celebration and recognition from and for the theatre community, the theme apt and invited dazzling outfits: One Night, Many Stars. 

Seattle Trans Underground Film Festival (STUFF) held its first viewings on October 16, 2025, at the lovely Northwest Film Forum. I had the honor to snuggle into a cozy theatre amongst a host of creative Queer and Trans individuals to watch the festival’s first double feature, CW’s Laughtrack and Henry Hanson’s Dog Movie. There were many laughs and a few tears shed, especially at the films’ closes, where both received minutes-long applause.

This month has been harrowing for Trans* folks all over the country, with the government shut down due to—among many other things—a disagreement between parties about Trans* healthcare expenses, a few troubling responses to the ‘No Kings’ protests over the past weekend, and more medical misinformation being spread by the current administration. It has been a difficult news week. 

Dunya closed her eyes and banished the Old-Man-turned-god from her sight. Still, the gods remained before her. In the abyssal blackness behind her eyes, there burned a glowing light. Shadowed figures cavorted around it, symbols flitting overhead. Vishnu and Rávan circled each other in a violent dance of war, and Dunya lay in the pyre at their stamping feet. 

On The Boards hosted the “pervs” of Seattle for part two of its 20^th anniversary year. Submissions from all over the world to our backyards were carefully curated down to a selection of erotic short films that have a little bit of everything for everybody. And at least one thing that expands your mind to possibilities previously unthought of.

I began following a case titled Doe v. State of South Carolina, in which an anonymous transgender teenager (referred to only as John Doe) is challenging South Carolina’s state law which prohibits students of the opposite sex to enter changing rooms, restrooms, and other private facilities of one sex. This law, South Carolina’s Proviso 1.120, affects all students in public Pre-K through high schools, denying Trans* students the right to use the bathroom that corresponds to their identity. John Doe, who is entering 9th grade this year, has rallied the support of his family and the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), a local LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

On September 5, I attended the West Coast premiere of For Colored Boyz (On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown/When Freedom Ain’t Enuff), written by Bryan-Keyth Wilson with direction by Lynette Winters and Ry Armstrong and choreography by Jimmy Shields. Brought to us by The Underground Theater, the play was described as a choreopoem, utilizing poetry, movement, and music to detail the unique intersectionality of being a queer Black man in America.