The Rainier Beach Arts Roundtable is a collaboration between the Rainier Beach Action Coalition and the Cascadia Poetics Lab. We meet once a month (3rd Friday, 6-7:30pm) to network as neighborhood creatives, support arts and culture, improve the visibility of arts & culture in Rainier Beach and make the neighborhood a destination for arts & culture. To get involved, contact Paul E Nelson, (206) 422.5002 or pen@cascadiapoeticslab.org
SCHEDULE, 3rd Friday, 6-7:30pm
April 17, at Rainier Beach Action Coalition HQ Food Innovation Center, 2nd Floor, 9059 MLK Way Jr. S. Some light beverages will be provided. Feel free to bring snacks to share. Our guest speakers will be Matt McIntosh, Community Relations Manager for the Mayor’s Office and Kelly Davidson, Deputy Director of the Office of Arts and Culture. They will discuss how the new administration can support arts, culture and individual artists in Rainier Beach.
May 15, outside the former home of late painter Paul Horiuchi, with guest speaker Professor Jason Wirth of Seattle, University. 9773 Arrowsmith Ave S. but we’ll meet just off Waters Alley, near the top of the pedestrian stairway. After talk, we will walk to Rosette to have N.A. or L.A. cocktails.
June 19, July 17, August 21, September 18, October 16, November 20, December 18, TBA
AGENDA
Welcome/Announcements/Intention/Vision
Introductions
Guest Speaker
Q&A
Announcement of next meeting
Rainier Beach Neighborhood Cultural Activation and Visioning
Project Summary:
Scope: this Project is designed to foreground arts, culture and connection to place in Rainier Beach. It will have two areas of work: 1) Neighborhood Cultural Activation through 7 free public cultural events conducted within the Rainier Beach Community: 2) the Cascadia Poetics Lab 2050 committee will create opportunities for residents to gather in local parks, hear about the history of each park and about the plants and animal species there. The information offered would be used to create postcard poems designed to envision and articulate a sustainable future for Rainier Beach in the year 2050.
Working in partnership with local groups and organizations, Cascadia Poetics Lab will organize and facilitate a census to identify current artists, agencies and arts & cultural activities in Rainier Beach, along with the 7 poetry postcard activations (activity bringing awareness to and involving participants in) local parks. It would host and facilitate a monthly arts networking meeting and create a calendar for neighborhood arts and cultural events. This would expand awareness of neighborhood arts & cultural activities for local residents, promote local artists & arts/culture organizations.
Purpose: This Project will produce multiple cultural events and cultivate a driving vision for future collaboration and artistic expression in Rainier Beach. Our headquarters are .2 miles from the recent murder scene of two Rainier Beach High School students. This particular moment in the neighborhood is critical, given recent neighborhood tragedies and the general hyper-vigilance that many in the country are feeling.
Cascadia Poetics Lab is working in partnership with the Rainier Beach Action Coalition, a Black-led, BIPOC, grass roots neighborhood development action coalition devoted to implementing neighborhood responsive renewal and development, focusing specifically on the implementation of the Rainier Beach Neighborhood Plan Update (1997, 2012). Our “activations” are modeled on the successful neighborhood events produced by RBAC over the last ten years. Their extensive community network will help us reach neighborhood residents, businesses, and organizations as volunteers, participants, and supporters of our poetry-centered cultural events.
Community Benefit:
This project will benefit the Rainier Beach community by 1) producing at least 7 free poetry-centered cultural programs in parks in Rainier Beach. These activities will strengthen the fabric of the community and celebrate the rich diversity of cultures represented here. The arts & cultural networking effort will connect Upper Rainier Beach with the main part of the neighborhood, will create awareness of individuals working in the neighborhood, allowing for more effective partnerships and will also create greater awareness of cultural agencies here and their events, leading to increased participation, awareness and revenues.
Community Involvement:
This project will maximize the benefit of the working partnership between CPL and the Rainier Beach Action Coalition (RBAC). We’re also working with the Rainier Beach Community Club, the venue for CPL’s annual Cascadia Poetry Festival. We plan an activation at yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective and Kubota Garden, two local cultural institutions with large networks. RBAC’s long and rich history of engagement in this community such as Walk the Block and Street Corner Activations inform and guide community outreach by Cascadia Poetics Lab, which will educate participants on the history and ecology of the staging areas, local parks.
RBAC has developed a trusted relationship with Rainier Beach businesses and organizations that will inform how the vision created can be actualized in economic, ecological, educational, health care, community safety, and cultural arenas.
Volunteer Opportunities:
In each of the 7 poetry-centered cultural events, volunteers will assist with site set up and take down, welcoming participants, distribute materials, help with registration, assist poet facilitators and accompanying musicians as needed. Pre-event volunteers will put up publicity posters, distribute promotional materials throughout Rainier Beach, and engage community members in ways decided by the collaborative leadership of Rainier Beach Action Coalition and Cascadia Poetics Lab. Event volunteers will be supervised by the Cascadia Poetics Lab Executive Director and board members on location.
Volunteers will engage community organizations, businesses, and institutions to gain insights and input for the 2050 cultural visioning project and to share with these neighborhood organizations the progress and outcomes of the visioning process. They will also assist in manifesting the vision for a just and sustainable Rainier Beach by the year 2050.
Rainier Beach has 8 Heritage protected Trees
1. Siberian Elm, 57th & Fletcher.
2. Grand Fir, Kubota Garden.
3. Black Walnut, 51st & Ryan Road.
4. Giant Sequoia, 56th & Prentice.
5. Black Cottonwood, 52nd, just south of Roxbury.
6-8. Three Black Cottonwoods, Renton & Trenton.
9. Western Red Cedar, Cloverdale east of Renton Av S.
Who are the creatives in our neighborhood?