Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 7/4/26 Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 7/4/26

Mike Barnet of Brmrtn Blk Mkt Creates Hub of Black Community

I had the pleasure of attending an event called Brmrtn Blk Mkt (Bremerton Black Market). It took place in Downtown Bremerton’s Quincy Square and per the website was “an open-air market celebration in Quincy Square of Black-led businesses, food vendors, doubledutch performances and live entertainment!” This free market allowed me to engage with and support my cultural community and I left, purchase-laden, feeling invigorated and refilled.

Calista Robbins 7/2/26 Calista Robbins 7/2/26

The Divided Line: Selah [Part 1]

Those enemies, Selah and his colleagues had learned of late, included them too. They’d hauled fifty workers off the grounds a week or so ago, shoved them in the back of black armored vans, and shipped them off to that prison across the sound. It’d been such a grand spectacle. A warning, really, to any others who thought to question the corpocratic reign.

Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 6/27/26 Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 6/27/26

Perennial Conventions: The AI Grift

As the next generation exits schooling and begins their foray into the career space, the moment of their celebrated end to matriculation is being overshadowed by speakers shoehorning AI inevitability into their faces. The boos, turned backs, and walkouts have made it clear that a solid portion of the debuting generation are already fed up.

Parker Dean 6/20/26 Parker Dean 6/20/26

Trans* Talk: Trans* Pride

This year, Pride feels bigger and more important than any other. Like in years past, it feels as though the need for Pride has grown, to remind all of us in the community that we are here, we are alive, we are beautiful. It also feels like an important way to remind our allies to stand with us, and to tell our opposition that we have been here forever and we aren’t backing down anytime soon.

Lynette Evans 6/19/26 Lynette Evans 6/19/26

Juneteenth: The Theft of Rest and the Radical Pursuit of Reclamation

Beyond the physical labor, those two stolen years completely robbed Black people of the vital life milestones that defined actual freedom. They were kept from the immediate, desperate search to find long-lost loved ones who had been sold down river. They were blocked from legally binding their marriages and solidifying the family units that slavery had spent centuries trying to rip apart. They were denied the right to pool resources, buy land, build equity, and found the independent schools that would educate the next generation. Every single day of delayed emancipation was a day stolen from laying the foundations of generational wealth, security, and community building.

Calista Robbins 6/3/26 Calista Robbins 6/3/26

The Divided Line: Juno [Part 2]

She took a long breath, steadied herself, and veered off the main road as soon as the soldiers passed by her. After, it was a short yet steep walk to the hillside entry of the leisure district, a mockery of artistic curiosity. Bio-engineered trees stood in perfect symmetry on either side of the walkway. To the left, the movie theater and the music hall. To the right, the art museum. Each government-sanctioned and carefully curated.

Calista Robbins 6/2/26 Calista Robbins 6/2/26

We Are Zoorkhaneh Bridges Generations + Cultural Understanding

“What we are building is not simply an athletic program but an act of cultural continuity. Zoorkhaneh has endured centuries of political upheaval, war, migration, and diaspora. To teach it today outside of Iran and across cultures and spaces where women have historically been denied access to it feels, in many ways, like a quiet form of resistance. Each session becomes an affirmation that this tradition belongs to all those willing to carry it forward, regardless of nationality, gender, or background.”

Parker Dean 5/21/26 Parker Dean 5/21/26

Trans* Talk: Grief

According to Remembering Our Dead, a website linked to Trans Day of Remembrance which houses the names of Trans individuals who have lost their lives due to violence or suicide, we have lost 11 siblings in the US since the start of 2026 (as of May 7, when the site was last updated, making Juniper Blessing the twelfth).

Mary Adner 5/14/26 Mary Adner 5/14/26

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?

Parker Dean 5/13/26 Parker Dean 5/13/26

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.

Maxwell Meier 5/4/26 Maxwell Meier 5/4/26

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.

Calista Robbins 5/2/26 Calista Robbins 5/2/26

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.

Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 4/17/26 Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 4/17/26

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.

Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 4/8/26 Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 4/8/26

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.

Parker Dean 4/4/26 Parker Dean 4/4/26

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.

Calista Robbins 3/31/26 Calista Robbins 3/31/26

Artistic Freedom to Object Given Space at Flinch/Punch

These spaces—these great halls of reflection—are necessities in our communities, especially in times of war, oppression, and authoritarianism. Annex Theatre, Seattle’s oldest fringe theater, saw this need growing as tensions rose amidst the 2016 election. So they developed a resistance program called Flinch/Punch.

Mary Adner 3/25/26 Mary Adner 3/25/26

Steven Marcus Releford’s Popup Comedy Injects Levity into Vegan Scene

Vegan. Black. Comedy.

Those aren’t words that come up in the same sentence—let alone the same event—ever, if at all. But Steven Marcus Releford is changing the landscape of how we perceive standup comedy at the intersections of Blackness, veganism, and West Coast vibes.

Parker Dean 3/19/26 Parker Dean 3/19/26

Trans* Talk: T4T Relationships

I entered my first T4T relationship in September of 2024, and it completely changed my perspective on what love could be. It obviously doesn’t hurt that my partner is one of the funniest, kindest, and smartest men I know, but a big part of our relationship is built on our experience as Trans* people. For me, a relationship with another Trans* person, whether that relationship is platonic, romantic, or otherwise, has its own unique perspective and feeling, one that is inaccessible for me in a cis relationship. But I know that not all Trans* individuals have this experience, so I sought out members of my community to share their input on T4T love.

Lynette Evans 3/16/26 Lynette Evans 3/16/26

Moe Vegan Serves Soul in Food + Vibes

I pulled up to a stretch of road that holds two years of my 10-year history —just a block from where I first landed when I moved back to Seattle from Atlanta. It was a homecoming wrapped in a transition, but the moment I stepped into Moe Vegan, the famed “Seattle Freeze" officially thawed out.

Parker Dean 3/5/26 Parker Dean 3/5/26

Parker’s Pages: A Future of Her Own

A Future of Her Own by Samantha Quamma is a delightful book that combines historical fiction, activism, and a kick-ass heroine to make something positively brilliant.

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