On a recent bright and cold afternoon I stood inside the new Great Jones Gallery (GJG), located in the Pound Arts building on Capitol Hill, and watched Seattle-based artist Marin Burnett assemble the pieces of her debut solo show, Ascension.

Pulling from her experience as a Black woman with deep roots in the South, much of the exhibition is based around the river baptisms she witnessed growing up. Drawn first with pastels and then blown up into a giclée print, she composed six portraits of Black women dressed in white in various stages of baptism: a woman being blessed in water, a woman ascending toward the sky. She

Earlier this month, the BBC rolled through Seattle to spotlight our “sheer amount of talent” on its global stage. Photos Courtesy KUOW Live Events | Photo by Juan Pablo Chiquiza

To avoid embarrassing Seattle when showcasing its arts community on the world stage, please observe Rule #1: Don’t lead with a flash in the pan.

Unfortunately, the fine folks at the BBC didn’t get the memo, so when you tune in to the latest episode of the UK broadcaster’s flagship culture program The Arts Hour: On Tour in Seattle, which airs on March 26, you will likely hear a good deal of the Marshall Law Band.

While I still

There are two truly wonderful things to know about the 1995 Power Rangers movie. The first is that the main villain, Ivan Ooze, is played by the same actor who portrayed the bad archaeologist in the first Indiana Jones movie. That’s range!

But it’s nothing compared to the movie’s even weirder casting choice for Rita Repulsa, the growling evil queen. She’s played by Julia Cortez, also known as Cynthia, the wife with the creative ping-pong ball trick in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

I know this isn’t the MOST shocking thing you’ll ever hear — they are actors, and actors play different characters all the time! I just think

Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda’s office says she’s working to see how the council could tighten up the original ordinance and fix the issue the court identified. Seattle Channel

After the courts nixed the Seattle City Council’s strongest post-moratorium protection for renters, the council is on the hunt for a workaround to keep tenants housed. But the clock is ticking. In less than a month, potentially tens of thousands of Seattle renters who fell behind on rent during the pandemic will no longer be able to use that financial hardship as a legal defense.

On Monday, the Washington State Court of Appeals struck down a key component of the protections for renters

State Dems are playing defense against Republicans in five legislative districts around the state, and potentially ten depending on how crazy stuff gets. Screenshot from the Redistricting Commission

Washington state Democrats currently enjoy a 16-seat majority in the House and a seven-seat majority in the Senate, but those numbers will very likely change come November.

Looking at polls and voting patterns, Democratic politicians and political analysts see a spectrum of possible outcomes in 2022, running from Modest Shrinkage on one end to Red Wave Armageddon on the other. The best-case scenario for Democrats would see them gaining a seat in both chambers, and the worst-case scenario would leave Dems down

The Biden administration’s announcement about the acceptance of Ukrainian refugees and the disbursement of aid comes as the president is in Brussels meeting with other world leaders. Getty Pool

Biden is in Brussels today meeting with other world leaders about the now month-long war raging in Ukraine, reports the New York Times. This morning, his administration announced that the United States would bring in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees who have been displaced by the fighting. The U.S. will also donate $1 billion to European countries dealing with the migrant surge. Further, the NY Times is reporting that they expect Biden to announce additional sanctions on Russia, targeting elites close to

Washington Bulb Workers picket early this morning for better pay. Andrew Eckels

We want to speak to Paulie: A week before thousands of tourists come to Skagit Valley for the annual tulip festival, Washington Bulb Company workers went on strike, demanding higher wages and better health and safety protocols. About 70 workers picketed this morning with support from Familias Unidas por la Justicia, an independent labor union of more than 400 indigenous farmworkers in Skagit and Whatcom counties. Skagit is quite the trek for Seattlites who want to show solidarity, but workers said you can help with just a phone call to Paulie.

Take action! #Huelga #justiceforfarmworkers pic.twitter.com/JR9gqJSFWC
— Community2Community (@FoodJusticeC2C)

Good food for the people… The Automat, Seattle Jewish Film Festival

Utopias are easier to find in the past than they are in the future. This, I think, is the source of The Automat‘s greatness. The documentary, which impressively runs at this year’s Seattle Jewish Film Festival, is about a possibility that has already been realized—and it is the nature of time that makes the past more real than the future.

The possibility was expressed by a 20th-century American business model for selling meal items through vending machines with small glass doors that popped open with a slot-inserted nickel. The vending machines lined the walls of eateries that were often