Real Change News

Thank you Path with Art for joining us last Friday and teaching our community how to do relief printing! 💕🎨

A HUGE thank you to teaching artist Shannon for sharing your expertise. We had a great time learning about the technique, creating prints and talking about art. So many vendors left feeling empowered to create more often (including at Path With Art’s open studio hours on Fridays 👀).

A BUNCH of the vendors who participated will be submitting their prints to our upcoming vendor zine! Stay tuned for more info about the zine, including when vendors will being selling it!

"Signs of Seattle" by .

Have you picked up the latest issue of Real Change yet? Buy a copy from your local vendor for $2, cash or Venmo.

📍📰 Find a Real Change vendor using the interactive map linked in our bio.

Capitol Hill Block Party has been hosted in the neighborhood’s streets since it started back in 1997. The stretch that makes up Broadway & Pike has been where thousands of people gather for three days each summer to indulge in music, food, drinks and fun. However, this year’s CHBP was a reminder of the growing problems the block party has faced in accommodating the larger crowds drawn in by rising.

This year, people showed up hours before the event began on Friday and lined up outside the gates of the festival to reserve a spot at the main stage where Chappell Roan would be performing later that night. Videos and photos from her set showed a crowd of 10,000 fans.

While Festivals in Richmond, Virginia, and Raleigh, North Carolina, had to move Roan to a bigger stage in order to increase capacity for the amount of fans expected to attend. However, this was a strategy the organizers of CHBP chose not to take, which forced many people to take to sitting on rooftops or gathering at the 76 gas station right behind the main stage to catch Roan’s performance.

In the days following the performance, attendees took to social media to share their experience, some even commenting under CHBP’s Instagram posts. People complained about the lack of access to water stations, no medical attention for people fainting around them and how the crowd was packed to the point where they were unable to comfortably move.

Some industry professionals, like Nate Dwyer of STG and THING Festival say that this is becoming a concerning trend among many festivals and concerts.

Read online at: https://www.realchangenews.org/news/2024/08/23/it-time-move-out-block-crowd-safety-concerns-voiced-after-capitol-hill-block-party-2024

Next Friday, August 30, we are gathering to honor vendors who we've lost in recent years.

The Homeless Remembrance Project will be joining us at 12pm to dedicate 15 new "Leaves of Remembrance" right outside our Vendor Center. If you knew any of these spectacular members of our community, please join us to pay your respects. We will be providing light refreshments and making space for folks to share a few words.

🍁 "Leaves of Remembrance" are small plaques that bear the names of homeless people who have passed. They are installed across the city in places of gathering and ensure that — in a city that too often treats our family, friends and neighbors like they are disposable — everyone has a place to be remembered. 🍁

Thank you all for joining us in remembering and celebrating the fantastic folks who make up our community.

“It’s easy for some people in the U.S. to be thrilled at the sight of fighter jets flying over their cities, because if you’ve never lived in a place where war is happening, you’ve never been given a reason to be afraid of them.

But Boeing Super Hornet Fighter Jets don’t just stay within our borders doing demonstrations for our viewing pleasure. These are weapons of war used to kill people in the name of ‘freedom’ or ‘democracy’ around the world. These same jets were used in U.S. invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria and are being used today in America’s bombing of Yemen. The booms of these fighter jets terrorize millions of people around the world, and yet they’re used as entertainment right here in our backyard.

Seafair organizers describe the event as ‘the place we can come together each summer without protest or politics.’

But Seafair is not an apolitical event. There is nothing apolitical about the glorification of the military or the demonstration of weapons used to bomb and invade other nations. In business terms, Seafair is ‘product placement’ for Boeing, and the Blue Angels are military propaganda in its purest form. We should be fighting against war and imperialism, not glamorizing it.”

Read about why local organizers are demanding an end to the Blue Angels in our latest issue!

Buy a copy of the Aug. 21–27 issue from your local vendor and read their op-ed on page 2.

Yesterday was officially the last day of Shani Laskin, our summer editorial intern.

Please join us in thanking her for her outstanding work during her time here and wishing her well on her next journey!

During her time here, Shani published stories about affordable housing, incarcerated firefighters & how local art communities are creating & maintaining safe spaces.

Read her stories here: https://www.realchangenews.org/news/archive/shani%2520laskin

Stay tuned for next Wednesday, when we're publishing her final story about King County's heat mitigation plan👀

A new issue of Real Change has hit the streets!

In this week's paper:
🎶 What the massive crowd at this July could mean for the future of the music festival.

🌱 How the Seattle Dept. of Parks & Rec spent thousands of dollars to demolish the Black Lives Memorial Garden last December.

✈️ Why are we still celebrating the Blue Angels in 2024?

Buy a paper from David Falk near Green Lake Park for $2, cash or Venmo! You can catch him or his wife Tanya selling Real Change there every week. 💕🗞

On July 24, almost two years of operations, closed its doors.

The cafe, named after the Lushootseed word for home, was one of the only brick-and-mortar Indigenous food service businesses in Seattle and a hub for the city’s urban Indigenous community.

The café first opened as a program of in November 2022. Plans for the cafe were initially drawn up prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and had to be adjusted due to the disruption it caused.

ʔálʔal Café manager Leila Perez said downtown Seattle commerce still hasn’t fully recovered.

“We’re in Pioneer Square — not a lot of people want to come down here; there’s not a lot of foot traffic, and if there is foot traffic, they’re trying to walk through here as fast as they can to get to wherever they’re going,” Perez said. “A lot of state employees around here are working from home, and they’re not coming in. It’s just a lot of compound issues that happened.”

Leah Sainz-Jones, ʔálʔal Café food lead and barista, said another factor in the increased costs was its ethical, community-oriented business model. As part of a wider effort to decolonize food systems, almost all ingredients and foods were sourced from Native farmers, producers and vendors. The cafe offered a curated menu of Indigenous foods such as bison Barbacoa tacos, rabbit stew, wild rice muffins and wojape parfait. The cafe also paid staff a fair wage and benefits.

Despite the challenges, Perez said the cafe managed to attract a lot of customers, including locals who worked nearby and members. Tourists, many of whom were Native, came to visit ʔálʔal Café as well.

Perez said she hoped people will cherish the memories of the place and what it meant for the community.

“I was taught that when you have something and when you are blessed to have something so amazing, you should be grateful,” she said.

Read more about Pioneer Square’s q***r history in .oron’s story for Real Change! Read online at realchangenews.org or via the link in ’ bio.

More Seattleites are grappling with the aftermath of their favorite cafes, music venues or art studios closing. Is there anywhere that doesn’t charge a hefty cover for entry and isn’t a bar or club? Asylum Collective was forged to answer that question by creating a third space for Seattleites.

Located in the heart of Pioneer Square, the collective’s basement can often be found hosting gatherings like a monthly goth night or a sapphic soiree, as well as art workshops and swap meets.

Kiko Kurosawa-Grasa, founder and director of Asylum Collective, launched the organization in 2023 after their favorite art space The Hook, closed its doors permanently. Artists who were displaced from The Hook confided in Kurosawa-Grasa that they either had to juggle between taking odd jobs to make rent or focus on making art full-time.

Kurosawa-Grasa also established Asylum Collective to address the absence of spaces where le****ns can simply gather. They pointed out that Wildrose is one of the only places in the city that is lesbian-focused, but since it’s a bar it only caters to a certain crowd. Asylum Collective is looking to bridge that gap by offering both all-ages and 21+ events. These gatherings range from a boisterous room to a sensory-safe space for anyone seeking a quiet environment.

Five weeks until the biggest Real Change party of the year! 🎉 🎊

🌟 MEET YOUR HOST & KEYNOTE SPEAKER 🌟

💙 Our keynote speaker, Jazmyn Clark, is ACLU of Washington's Smart Justice Policy Program Director. Jazmyn focuses on fighting against the criminalization of poverty locally and statewide.

💙 Our host, Rosette Royale, spent over a decade at Real Change as a reporter and editor. During their time here, Rosette focused on uplifting and highlighting folks who are often overlooked in mainstream media. Now, she's South Seattle Emerald's managing editor!

Want to hear from both Rosette and Jazmyn on Sept. 21st? Join us on Sept. 21st for our 30th birthday bash!

We’re enjoying dinner prepared by a community chef, drinks from Schilling Cider and moving performances by local poets.

Plus, a silent auction with spectacular prizes from Pearl Jam, Pike Place Market Foundation, Museum of Pop Culture and more!

Register now at: https://givebutter.com/c/RC30

After a five-year hiatus, , a local music event celebrating “the grrrls, q***rs and POC” in the Seattle punk music scene, is back. The fest took place July 27 and was filled with music, drag and community, just as the event advertised on its Instagram.

Our Fest’s roots go back to 2018, when Erin Doyle, founder of the festival and singer of the pop punk band Three Finger, noticed a gap in both Seattle’s music festivals and punk scene.

“There’s a lot of local fests and they’re all awesome … but I just started to notice that it didn’t always seem like the best representation of what I was seeing out of all the bands,” Doyle said. “It just felt like I wasn’t seeing as many girls or people of color or q***r people on some of the bigger [stages].”

Determined to spotlight what she calls a more accurate representation of the music scene, Doyle forged Our Fest from the DIY spirit the punk scene is known for.

Doyle said the first Our Fest, which took place in April 2019 at the .ldg.sea and Victory Lounge (RIP), went smoothly, and she was on track to put on a second Our Fest the following year. However, things didn’t go according to plan.

With no end in sight for the pandemic, Doyle went on to plan and postpone three Our Fests, making 2024’s Our Fest the second official one.

This year’s event took place at in Belltown and included performances from Doyle’s band , as well as , , and . Since the event advertises itself to be for grrrls as well as q***rs and POC, Doyle said it was essential that the bands match these demographics.

Read more about the return of Our Fest, and what it could mean for Seattle’s music, punk and DIY scenes, in ’ story. Link in our bio!

Before we can say our farewell to the social gatherings that make a true Seattle summer, the is here to provide us with the perfect season finale.

For its inaugural year, the swap meet is setting up shop at the ’s Quality Flea Center in Capitol Hill and opening its doors Aug. 17 to offer local businesses and customers alike a common space to connect.

CHASM is the brainchild of Joshua Okrent, the founder of PRFM. Okrent yearned for the feeling a community-based market brings but said the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly stopped opportunities for a while. He’d heard similar sentiments from other Washington-based craftsmakers, artists, vendors and collectors who were eager to return to that model, which further encouraged Okrent to reignite the swapmeet.

If CHASM seems familiar, it’s because it was originally known as SouthPark Autonomous Swap Meet. Okrent and Todd Hewitt, owner of , worked together to have SPASM operate in the parking lot outside of Hewitt’s business. It launched in the summer of 2021 and for three years was a pillar of the South Park neighborhood.

“South Park is a very special neighborhood,” Okrent said. “It’s really kind of the forgotten stepchild of Seattle neighborhoods. There’s a big immigrant population, Native population and Latino population. So, the neighborhood just completely adopted us very quickly. 75% of the people that would come through [on any given weekend] were the people who lived around there, and it was really great.”

Okrent also emphasized the importance of a local community relying on a place like the Quality Flea Center as somewhere people can make lifelong connections that go beyond the usual buyer and seller dynamic. As someone who felt ostracized by society at young age, Hewitt said CHASM’s non-judgmental environment is what draws people to the market every month.

Read more about CHASM in ’s story via the link in our bio.

This week’s issue is all about third spaces—community markets, music festivals, cafés and goth nights—and how communities sustain them.

Featuring a beautiful cover illustrated by and colored by her sister 🎶🖼️🐸

Larry sells the paper outside the Rainier Ave Safeway. Next time you’re nearby, stop by to say hi, get to know him and buy a paper for $2 cash or Venmo (+ TIP)!

This Thursday! Hepatitis Education Project is hosting a free Hep B vaccine clinic.

Share this with anyone you know who could use this service.

HEP is hosting a free vaccine clinic on August 15th, 12:30–3:30 p.m.

There will be free snacks and anyone who gets vaccinated will also receive a $5 gift card. No appointment needed, but if possible, we encourage folks to schedule a time here: https://loom.ly/kzWKNSs

On July 18, just three months after negotiating an agreement, unionized workers at Homegrown were told shocking news: that the company would be closing 10 out of 12 stores and laying off 158 employees.

At the time their bargaining with management concluded, workers—who unionized with Unite Here Local 8—celebrated major gains in base pay, paid time off, health care coverage for family members and other gains in working conditions. The workers also won hazard pay for working in the heat, an issue that is becoming increasingly salient in the Pacific Northwest.

Clio Jensen, a sandwich associate at the Homegrown store in Westfield Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, said the news took workers completely by surprise. Jensen said nothing had signaled potential financial difficulties.

“We hadn’t heard anything from the company that would suggest this,” she said.
Although workers are disappointed about the closures, they told staff reporter Guy Oron that fighting for their rights was worth it: https://www.realchangenews.org/news/2024/08/07/sandwich-chain-homegrown-announces-closure-10-stores-layoffs-unionized-staff

During an Aug. 1 press conference at City Hall, “tough on crime” Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison unveiled Stay Out of Drug Areas. Under the proposed ordinance, a judge could prohibit a person from entering a designated zone if they previously committed a drug-related criminal offense there. If a person violates that order, they could incur a gross misdemeanor penalty and face up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Davison was joined by three fellow right-leaning politicians on the Seattle City Council: Council President Sara Nelson, Public Safety Committee chair Bob Kettle and Councilmember Maritza Rivera. The press conference also featured Downtown Seattle Association president and CEO Jon Scholes, who gave remarks in support of the legislation.

The two proposed SODAs are around Westlake in downtown Seattle and in Little Saigon in the Chinatown-International District. In a press release announcing the proposed ordinance, Nelson and Scholes referenced a recent Seattle City Auditor report that found concentrations of crime and drug use in several areas of downtown, including Westlake and Little Saigon.

Real Change previously reported that harm reduction advocates were skeptical of focusing on geography over root causes of poverty and substance use disorders. They were also fearful that the report would be used to advance further policies of criminalization; these fears now appear to have come true.

Read more in staff reporter Guy Oron's story: https://www.realchangenews.org/news/2024/08/07/davison-seattle-city-council-members-revive-zones-banish-drug-users-parts-downtown

✨ 6 weeks until our 30th anniversary celebration! ✨ Join us this September to commemorate three decades of jobs, journalism & justice — AND look towards the future of Real Change!

📅 Saturday, September 21, 6 - 9 p.m.

📍 Washington Hall in Seattle's Central District.

🎤 Hosted by Real Change newsroom alum Rosette Royale! Keynote speech by ACLU of Washington's Jazmyn Clark.

🌟 Register now at: givebutter.com/c/RC30

This is a big milestone for us, and we’re celebrating with a HUGE party! This year, we’ve got a silent auction (with prizes like signed Pearl Jam 👀), drinks c/o Schilling Cider, a salmon feast from Liiv for Flavor Catering & more. You don’t want to miss it!

This is a pivotal time for our community. Right now, our unhoused neighbors and family in Seattle are navigating an unprecedented housing crisis, rising cost of living & increasing criminalization of poverty.

We’re committed to fighting back and meeting our community's emerging needs — with you by our side!

Thank you to everyone who’s made 30 possible. 💙

“One of the many times I became homeless with my child was after I was turned down for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). This was around 2009, and I was working full time, 50 to 60 hours week, making an annual salary of $27,000 in Detroit, which I thought was a lot until I learned the evil of ‘salary.’

At the time, the case worker asked me humiliating questions, such as ‘how do you afford sanitary products, shampoo, a hair brush,’ making me feel that I did not appear to ‘look desperate’ and insinuating that, based on my appearance, there was no possible way I could be poor. The poverty line to receive social services in the area was capped at $11,000.

I sobbed and asked her, ‘Do I just quit my job? Will you help me then?’

Her answer was, ‘Yes. Here are all the services you can receive if unemployed.’“

Read ’s monthly op-ed on page 2 of the Aug. 7–13 issue of .

Use our map at tinyurl.com/find-a-vendor to see where a Real Change vendor sells the paper near you.

Real Change vendors are folks with lived of experience of homelessness and poverty who make an income selling our newspaper on the streets of Seattle. Next time you see a vendor be sure to buy a paper for $2, cash or Venmo!

The latest issue of Real Change is out now! 📰💕 We’re covering SPD surveillance during the 2020 protests for Black lives, Ann Davison’s proposed “Stay Out of Drug Areas” & encampment sweeps during PDX’s recent heat wave.

Want to read all this and more? Look for Real Change vendors holding the paper with Victor Sanchez's comic book-worthy illustration on the front!

➡️ Vendors sell the paper for $2, cash or Venmo (+ TIP) across the Seattle area.

Charmaine Cooley, one of our 2024 Vendor of the Year nominees, sells the paper outside the Uptown Metropolitan Market. Say “hi” to her next time you’re nearby! 💛

“I ask everyone reading this, please love on and forgive yourselves. Work to heal the wounds that have been created and left in the background, so you can learn to love again and regain that emotional and mental freedom your soul so desperately craves.”

For our August Youth Voices column, participant and host Durojaiye Gyasi Kweku Heru shared excerpts of “Take Me,” a song he released last year about depression and grief.

Thank you Durojaiye for sharing such powerful words!

Read online via the link our bio or buy a paper from your local vendor and read it on page 8!

This op-ed was published in partnership with .

Bellevue students and community members are calling attention to a recently installed noise machine at Crossroads Park that they say is an example of hostile architecture and disproportionately impacts young people and unhoused Bellevue residents.

The park is a popular hangout space for young people, situated close to the offices of several social service organizations, the Bellevue Youth Theatre and a nearby mall. It is also a community hub with weekly distributions of food, clothes and other supplies by volunteer mutual aid groups.

Around May, community members started to hear an irritating, high-pitched buzzing sound, resembling the hum of high-voltage power lines. At first, they did not know where it was coming from, but soon they located a device inside the men’s bathroom.

The noise machine, known as the “Mosquito Device,” is activated nightly after the park and its bathrooms close. Mahajan said that while in use, the machine could be heard as far as approximately 50 yards away.

launched a Change.org petition on July 11 calling on the city to “stop the noise.” To date, the petition has received over 300 signatures. Youth activists and their allies have testified against the noise machines at Bellevue City Council meetings.

 member Crystal said she’d rather the city spend money on supportive services for youth than installing the Mosquito Device.

“[Bellevue should] invest more in school mental health services and counselors and just make Bellevue more youth-friendly instead of [being] anti-youth with the device,” Crystal said.

Read more about how student activists are organizing against the noise device in .oron's story for Real Change. Article linked in ' bio!

"Judged" by .

Have you picked up the latest issue of Real Change yet? Buy a copy from your local vendor for $2, cash or Venmo.

📍📰 Find a Real Change vendor using the interactive map linked in our bio.

"What we need most from our leaders, legislators, president and Supreme Court is compassion. Many people feel a lack of humanity due to issues like the War on Gaza, and it is our officials’ responsibility to lead with empathy. The influence they have on our society is widespread and important.
.. And so I urge all of our leaders to make compassion your guiding compass. Compassion for all, but especially for the weak, should be at the center of politics, society and culture."

In his latest opinion column, Carl Nakajima reflects on the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of Grants Pass and urges our political leaders to lead with compassion, not indifference.

Carl is a local writer, activist and Real Change vendor. He sells the paper outside the King Street Station. Stop by sometime in the next week to talk with him about his op-ed and buy a paper.

You'll find his op-ed on page 9!

Every year, two Real Change vendors are selected to receive our prestigious Vendor of the Year award. 👑✨ These vendors are chosen by their peers for their leadership and for representing our values of courage, community, creativity and compassion!

The nominations for 2024 and this year (for the first time ever), we’re asking you – Real Change customers, readers and supporters – to help us vote. 💙💛

Go to https://bit.ly/VOY24 & choose two out of these six OUTSTANDING nominees by 8/16:
🌟 Denise Fortin 🌟 Zack Tutwiler 🌟 Dhannie Crenshaw🌟 Donald Duncan 🌟 Charmaine Cooley 🌟 Bryant Carlin 🌟

After you vote, please go out and support your top picks! Find selling locations for each vendor nominee in the post.

Want to be there while we honor our Vendors of the Year in-person? Join us at our 30th anniversary event on Saturday, September 21 from 6-9 p.m.!

Held at the historic and hosted by Rosette Royale of .

As wildfire season blazes across the Pacific Northwest, hundreds of incarcerated firefighters are combating the infernos burning in Washington state.

An increasing threat of wildfires has resulted in a rising demand for laborers on the ground to fight them off. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) employs about 700 seasonal and permanent firefighters. There are an additional 237 incarcerated firefighters who are involved in camp crews — a joint effort by the DNR and the DOC to get incarcerated people working in firefighting and forestry.

In recent years, the DNR has gained new attention and funding for its efforts in fire prevention and suppression. The state’s 2021-2022 legislative session resulted in the creation and subsequent passing of HB 1168 – a bill that made it so that incarcerated individuals must be paid no less than the locality’s minimum wage while actively fighting wildfires.

When the crew is not putting out fires, the workers are paid between $1.25 and $1.50 an hour, with select workers earning up to $1.70 per hour.

In Washington state, the current wage floor for incarcerated workers is $1.00 per hour, substantially higher than the national average, which ranges from $0.13 to $0.52 per hour according to the American Civil Liberties Union. However, Washington’s prison labor wages are 93% less than the state’s minimum wage, which is $16.28 per hour.

Read more about the program and how incarcerated firefighters are keeping Washingtonians safe in the latest story from our newsroom intern, Shani Laskin: https://www.realchangenews.org/news/2024/07/31/washington-state-incarcerated-firefighters-are-frontline-climate-justice

Real Change News seems to be excited by Vietgone by Qui Nguyen Presented by Pork Filled Productions and SIS Productions

"The upcoming production of “Vietgone” is one of my most anticipated shows of the summer. “An all-American love story about two very new Americans” is an incredibly charming way to describe any show, and the photos of Josh Erme and Megan Huynh, playing leads Quang and Tong respectively, already have me believing in their love. "