White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Grab your rain hat and get ready to go to White Center for tonight’s fabulously festive Rat City Art and Food Walk, starting up at 5 pm. Here are the locations participating in the Holiday Market; here’s the list of vendors and where to find them.

By Tracy Record
White Center Now editor

Think the term “participatory budgeting” sounds boringly bureaucratic? Hundreds of people involved in King County arts and culture organizations and service providers would vigorously disagree, in the wake of a celebratory gathering tonight in White Center, for the organizations around urban unincorporated King County who won a share of $11 million. Here are two of them:

(WCN video)

Young poetry performers Chellsea Vales (a 6th grader from Dimmitt Middle School) and Amiracle Hayes (a 5th grader from Campbell Hill Elementary School) were there for Speak with Purpose, “the only public-speaking program directly offered in classrooms throughout King County.” Speak with Purpose is receiving $96,000 from this year’s participatory-budgeting allocations.

Though the announcement of the celebration said County Executive Dow Constantine was expected to join Local Services Director Leon Richardson, Constantine’s deputy executive Shannon Braddock was there with Richardson instead. They and PB program manager Gloria Briggs had warm words for the program, as did others who were involved in the process that started with community nominations and continued into community voting:

Many of the recipients were there to officially accept their awards, which came from two pots of money, including cannabis-related dollars that went specifically to North Highline and Skyline. Briggs announced some of the NH winners:

And there were more performances – including Evergreen High School’s own Mariachi Ocote, led by Gabriela Olivarez.

They’re part of a Highline Public Schools program that stands to get a $120,000 PB grant if the school board approves acceptance. And White Center-based Acts on Stage presented a youth performer, too, Kaia Houston, who wrote the song she sang:

Acts on Stage won two grants for two programs, $82,000 and $180,000. One of the largest contingents there to accept their grant was the Khmer Community Center group:

They’re receiving $600,000 to “finish the transformation” of their under-construction building. Other major grants for unincorporated North Highline include $750,000 for Evergreen Aquatic Center, $700,000 for the White Center Heights Elementary (where this event was held) playground, $700,000 to more brightly illuminate downtown WC, and $200,000 for the White Center Food Bank. Community voting for potential grants was held this past October.

Tonight’s the night – third Thursday! Art (and food) walk in White Center, 5-8 pm (with some South Delridge venues participating too). Find the list of 17 participating businesses/venues here.

2:58 PM: It’s Thursday, October 17 – go celebrate Hallo-month at tonight’s Rat City Art Walk, 5-8 pm. Participating locations are listed here.

6:43 PM: Thanks to Susan for sending this photo. We believe it’s from Nepantla in South Delridge:

Thanks to Meghan for the last-minute tip on this! Tonight is the debut of the Rat City Art and Food Walk, planned for 5-9+ pm on third Thursdays. Here’s the info she forwarded:

ADDED: Here’s the text list of participants, as presented by the White Center Business Alliance here:

1. 2 Fingers Social Club – Live Painting, DJ, Tattoos!
2. Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery -Vecinos Art Show
3. Nacho Mama – $5 Mini Native Tacos
4. Misfits Strength Studio – Circus Art
5. Boombox – Karaoke 9 pm-close
6. Lumberyard – Live Art, GameNite 8 pm, Happy Hour 4-7 pm
7. Mynt – Gift with Mural Selfie and Social Media Post
8. Alebrijes Oaxacan Kitchen – Kids/Youth Painting & Food Specials
9. Big Mario’s Pizza and Alpine Diner – Live Music & Food Specials
10. Southgate Roller Rink Bar – Karaoke w/ Baby Ketten
11. Tim’s Tavern – Live Music W/ Dusty 45s & Tropical Itch Art By Henry Ward
12. Sap Sap Lao Deli – Meatball Skewer Special & Tofu & Gluten Free Sauce Special
13. Que Chevere – Latin Music & Food Specials
14. Crawfish House – Live Painting by Mia
15. Puffy Pandy – DJ, Live Painting, Interactive Panda Mural, Artist Marketplace, $5 Ice Cream Puffys
16. Lariat Bar – Live Art by Nolan Harris & Market by John X Garaizar & Sing in the Ring Karaoke with Christopher Mychael.
17. Blu Grouse – Gears N Beers

(WCN/WSB photo, August 2023)

Since its inception, the Low Rider Block Party presented every summer since 2021 by Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery has been near the gallery in South Delridge, and it’s been in August. This year, it’s moving to White Center proper, and moving up to July. A reader just tipped us that the block party is this Saturday, July 20, 11 am-8 pm, on 17th SW between SW Roxbury and SW 100th. The cars are just part of it! Art, music, food, more.

You can admire creative cups at White Center’s own Dubsea Coffee (9910 8th SW) when Rat City Studios presents its Community Cup Showcase starting one week from today:

We’re so excited to share that our 6th Annual Community Cup Exhibition at Dubsea Coffee is opening just around the corner!

The show will be up from October 4th – October 30th.

We’ll be having an opening reception on October 7th from 10 am-12 pm. This reception will be a fun time to connect with the community members in the show, meet the local artists, take in all the cups, and enjoy a delicious beverage.

The Community Cup Showcase coincides with National Clay Week and this annual event celebrates the wide variety of talent, techniques, shapes, glazes, and styles of pottery making within our vibrant clay family!

From Darlene Sellers at King County Parks, a two-part invitation – and part one happens tomorrow (Saturday, March 19th):

The White Center Teen Program (aka the Log Cabin) is gearing up for the 5th annual Log Cabin’s Got Talent Show set to premiere on zoom on Friday, March 25th from 5-6:30 pm. Visual and performing artists ages 12 – 19 are encouraged to submit original artwork and videos before 8 pm on Saturday, March 19th. Please reach out to Jonathan at ngoc.nguyen@kingcounty.gov or 206-482-1138 for details on how to submit. Art supplies and talent coaches currently available every Tue – Sat from 3-8pm at the WCTP. Categories for the 2022 LCGT Visual competition include drawing/painting, photography/digital design, and ceramics. All submissions will be eligible for viewing on the WCTP facebook page and youtube channel and top scoring artwork and performances will be featured in the LCGT zoom program on Friday, March 25th.

In addition to Log Cabin’s Got Talent on March 25th, family friendly craft projects and art supplies will be available on Saturday, March 19th in the following four King County Park locations:

1 PM – Steve Cox Memorial Park (1321 SW 102nd St 98146)
2 PM – Thurnau Memorial Park (11050 10th Ave SW 98146)
3 PM – North Shorewood Park (SW 102nd St & 24th Ave SW 98146)
4 PM – White Center Heights Park (SW 102nd St & 7th Ave SW 98146)

Log Cabin’s Got Talent is once again sponsored by the teens and staff of the White Center Teen Program. The WCTP offers free recreational, educational, and social enrichment programming to youth ages 12-19 between Tuesday – Saturday from 3-8pm. The WCTP is currently offering remote programs as well as small group in-person assistance with homework help and job readiness; outdoor programs such as tennis, bicycle club, lacrosse, and garden club; and the ongoing Recreation Aide Employment Program.

The county has announced grants are on the way to nearly 200 events, and at least one of them is in White Center: The list includes $5,000 for White Center Promise. The grants went to “local event and festival producers who faced significant revenue losses due to Covid,” according to the announcement. Grantees are in two groups, event budgets over $250,000 and under $250,000; the former were eligible for up to $50,000, while recipients in the latter group (including WC Promise) got up to $10,000.

Nature and art together made for quite a show at New Start High School over the weekend. Gill Loring shares the photos from the celebration of art at the school’s renowned community garden:

The garden has an amazing backstory – including the fresh-grown produce it donates to the White Center Food Bank, more than a ton last year alone!

Just south of the Sarah Robbins murals we’ve shown, on the Beer Star etc. building, new ones by “Paz,” including this one:

The artist is on Instagram here.

We’ve been checking back at 16th/98th since Sarah Robbins‘ first panel of mural art outside the Beer Star (etc.) building – and today, we finally caught the second panel. Note the small message at right – “call your mom”!

While out checking on a few things, we stopped in downtown White Center, where West Seattle muralist Sarah Robbins was working on the boards covering the windows at Beer Star and its (also closed) co-housed businesses. She told us she’s working on the next panel (to the south) after this.

Learn while you shop the first-ever White Center Community Pop-Up Market (9630 16th SW until 5 pm). “Resisting Displacement” is the theme of the event organized by the WC Community Development Association. You can meet local makers like Dylan and Marigold:

You can also learn about longtime local businesses:

Among those participating – Ana Castro of Salvadorean Bakery:

The market features a variety of items – some edible, some wearable:

As the original announcement noted, “White Center has always been an innovative, creative, and culturally rich community and this pop up market intends to celebrate that richness in our community in order to resist the displacement that is happening.”

The White Center Art Walk is on! DJ Jenny C is spinning, and the Art Market is open:

You can check out work by local artists including Dawn Frasier:

And Jamie Nova:

Just go wander! More photos to come.

Tomorrow night, the White Center Chamber of Commerce is presenting the White Center Art Walk, 6-9 pm – concurrent with the first night of the first-ever White Center Pride, so it’s one big night. Multiple venues in downtown WC, and even across the line in South Delridge, where Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery is open for the occasion. Among the downtown WC plans, the Chamber’s Sheryl Clinton shares:

DJ’s will be set up on 98th and 16th (Jenny Chhim, Cambodian music) and in front of RJB Photography studio (DJ Top). Same location:

6:30 Miss Sheryl’s Ballet dancers

8:00 Brass Ring Belly Dance

Also:

6:00-7:00 Mama Pixie Face Painting in front of Miss Sheryl’s Ballet Petite location 9650 16th Ave SW

6:00-9:00 Art Market & Raffle at Miss Sheryl’s Ballet Grande Location 9613 16th Ave SW. Raffle benefits future art ventures in WC

See you there!

That’s the tribute to poet Richard Hugo, installed last year at Mac’s Triangle Pub (Delridge/Roxbury) during the first annual official celebration of his birthday. The second one is set for the same spot, this Friday at 7 pm, and you’re invited to come honor him by reading one of his poems .. or maybe one of your own. The announcement:

Poet Richard Hugo (1923-1982), has another birthday coming up. It’s December 21st. Born in White Center, Hugo was a poet and teacher whose books included White Center, The Triggering Town, Death of the Kapowsin Tavern, amongst other works. Seattle’s Hugo House is named for him. Celebrate his life and work and lift a pint on his birthday at Mac’s Triangle Pub in White Center.

Here’s our coverage of last year’s celebration.

Tomorrow – Saturday, October 6th – brings the first of two White Center Library programs focusing on the history of hip-hop. 2-3 pm, you are invited to hear about “Race, Class, Culture, and the History of Hip-Hop in the Northwest.” Then on October 27th, also 2-3 pm, King Khazm of 206 Zulu will speak about “Hip-Hop and It Don’t Stop.” Both presentations are free and open to all; the WC Library is at 1409 SW 107th.

Been to Dubsea Coffee (9910 8th SW) lately? We just received this announcement about the art you’ll see there this month, by Brooke Fotheringham:

Synthesis – A photographic daydream at the intersection of genetic engineering and materials science

A visual exploration of the potential of genetic engineering to create innovations both aesthetic and practical to deal with surviving on a rapidly changing planet; a collection of new life and materials imagined by manipulating and rearranging botanical and synthesized forms. What if we could grow windows, lamp shades, or fiber optic cables the way diatoms grow their ethereal glass houses instead of manufacturing them in a more traditional sense?

“Synthesis” is on display through the end of the month, 6 am-7 pm daily.

It’s long been lamented that White Center was without a fixed tribute to perhaps its most legendary son, poet Richard Hugo (1923-1982). Now there’s one on the walls of Mac’s Triangle Pub, where 16th, Delridge, and Roxbury meet, placed there Thursday night during a literary event, “Homage to Richard Hugo Night.” Readers included the organizers Nicholas O’Connell, founder of thewritersworkshop.net, read a Hugo poem in the early going:

White Center resident Jeff Smoot read from his essay, “Finding Richard Hugo in White Center,” which will be published in an upcoming online literary magazine.

Triangle Pub proprietor “Mac” McElroy read a Hugo poem particularly apropos to running a bar:

Smoot is hoping this “might become an annual event that preserves Hugo’s White Center legacy in some way.” That legacy includes a 1980 poetry collection titled “White Center.”