On June 10, 2025, I had the fortunate and unique opportunity to sit down with Seattle artist Heidi Fairall. Her quirky and whimsical style shows not only to how she perceives art, but life itself, and was refreshing and inspirational for aspiring creatives alike. For myself, she made me think about how I approach the creative process when it comes to my own projects.

It’s very different from my experiences growing up moderately religious in the South. It took away the shame and self-blame. In heteronormative, vanilla sex, there are too many unspoken expectations, too many assumptions about what’s going to happen, that some people just begin following the script without any sort of communication. This, I believe, leads to situations like what 17-year-old me experienced, where I left thinking I had led someone on and realized years later that I was actually assaulted. I don’t know if he knows this though.

On December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor marked the start of the United States’ involvement in World War II. It also started a wave of fear and unrest throughout the country, leading to an overwhelming prejudice against Japanese Americans. “Most of us had no ties to Japan,” Lilly Kodama, a survivor, explained. “We had never been there. We had never even seen it.” Similar to the reactionary racism and prejudice against Arab Americans following 9/11, the discrimination against Japanese Americans had no true basis in fact, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order only created more harm and prejudice against an already vulnerable community.

JLH: [This show] is sort of like confirmation. And I think that’s been an experience for people. I’m also a Survivor. The experience of people coming in and asking, “Does this agree with me or not?”, and me feeling concerned and sensitive about how this feels for Survivors, because, again, the framing is not around Survivor experience. It’s around the document, the lack of documentation, and the protest around our systems of power that are definitely not serving. So almost an archival protest. The programming needed to be more of a deepening of conversations around survivors and their experiences.

Documentaries like Between Goodbyes, Viktor, and Seeds are an invigorating style of non-fiction storytelling. These films evolve the genre beyond what we perceive as documentaries. Documentary filmmaking, like narrative filmmaking, sets out to tell a story and so it makes sense to tell the story in a way that makes sense for the subject and material. These three forge their own path and are all the better for it.

The 2025 Cascadia Film Festival was a weekend full of inspiring women directors, producers, and their amazing films. From stories of scrappy heroines and documentaries rich in wisdom, the festival brought audiences from across Washington and farther. The weekend kicked off with a screening and talkback from honored guest Yvonne Russo. Russo is a director and producer known for her work in Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae (2024), The Heart Stays (2024), and Viva Verdi (2024) the film that opened the festival as a Pacific Northwest premiere. 

The term "technical books" makes it sound like there are a bunch of stuffed shirts walking around with large impenetrable tomes, but Ada’s caters to far more accessible scientific, science fiction, and fantasy books. When you browse the shelves, you find that science is a broad category covering the hard sciences like biology and chemistry, the soft sciences like psychology and sociology, and the scientific arts like cooking and architecture.

Elliott Bay is a go-to spot for me. It helps that it is near my home, but it is much more than solely convenience based. The layout and the books they spotlight really draw me in, no matter what the genre is. I find myself gravitating towards genres I’m usually not interested in due to the enticing books they have on display. The staff are helpful without being overbearing, and the attached cafe serves as a nice incentive to stay a bit longer, order food, and relax with a good book.

Birdwatching used to be the go-to hobby for outdoorsy folks with a lot of free time, usually in addition to hiking or backpacking, but now the birdwatching phenomenon seems to have spread far and wide. People who aren’t usually big nature fans are heading outside to join in on the hunt for Virginia Rails and Great Horned Owls, even with little experience or interest in other nature hobbies. So what is it about birds that seems to have drawn in so many people? And why now? And how do you escape the dreaded birdwatching FOMO?

In February, I was an instructor at an arts-infusion workshop for a group of Seattle Public School elementary teachers. The workshop was held at an amazing multi-arts space that I had no idea existed in Seattle: PublicDisplay.ART. Arts Impact, the organization I teach with, acquired the use of the multipurpose space at no cost—an arts space that can be reserved and used for FREE! “How is that possible?” I asked myself. I connected with Marty Griswold, the Publisher of PublicDisplay.Art (they also publish a hard-copy magazine) and he filled me in on all the details. 

March ushers in an exciting moment for Washington filmmakers and cinephiles alike as Emergence Films closes applications (and vets participants) for their debut Emerging Filmmakers Program. This is an opportunity for women filmmakers of all backgrounds to gain career experience and guidance from co-founders Sienna Beckman and Rachel Noll James, who collectively have decades of professional experience with credits ranging from independent darlings to entertainment giants like HBO. The program is open to any woman 18 years or older who resides in the state of Washington.

In the 2020s, the topic of sustainability has become a major focus in classrooms—specifically regarding fast fashion, prompting many students to face the fact that their shopping habits or favorite retailers may be harming people and the planet. In recent years, fashion has gained a reputation for being one of the most extractive and exploitative industries. Student organizations play an important role in creating collective change by holding space for education and action, both with their members and their greater campus and local community.

Every quarter, SFS hosts the In Focus series celebrating Seattle directors and cinematographers that features shorts, music videos, and more in a diverse range of content. SFS chooses a director who has a strong intention and vision to their stories with robust elements of “framing/staging/blocking, confidence in editing, making distinctive choices, and thematically cohesive style choices,” said the SFS Artistic Director, Marcus Baker.  

February 2025’s In Focus event showcased director and cinematographer June Zandona, known for her work on Penelope, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Special, and I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. The screening featured three of Zandona’s shorts: Dancer, Wedding Video, and This is Concrete. 

Imagine a free seat at a fine dining restaurant where each dish goes beyond flavor, offering a unique connection to Filipino culture and community—this is Archipelago. Archipelago is a minority, family, and women-owned Filipino American restaurant that creates delightful tasting menu experiences through culinary excellence and inspiring stories. The restaurant’s attention to detail is evident from the uniquely shaped and beautifully sculpted dishware to the intricate placement of each ingredient highlighted in every bite. Each guest is intimately around the dinner table like warm-hearted friends and family.

As they wrapped up the speeches and braced for the ribbon cutting, Savanna Boles was invited to sing. During her rendition of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, it began to snow. At first it was a magical dusting, but as the music swelled, so did the weather. We followed the singer as everyone was ushered inside and out of the cold. A few joked that the ancestors were saying, "Get on with it, it's cold!" Inside the music switched to a vocal accompaniment to “Glory,” and the ribbon was cut. With that, the Washington State Black Legacy Institute was officially open.

When life gives you a book about frogs, by golly, you’ve got to jump on it.

This week I discovered Frog Day, a stupendously cute and informative book all about frogs and toads and the wonderful world they live in. From the Earth Day series of the University of Chicago Press comes a 24-hour story about 24 different frog and toad species, written by herpetologist (a biologist who studies amphibians and reptiles) Marty Crump and illustrated by local Seattle artist Tony Angell.

A Light in the Attic, like other works, was banned for Silverstein’s depiction of challenging authority, igniting disrespectful behavior, and promoting disobedience. The book’s most “problematic” poem “How Not to Have to Dry the Dishes” puts a spin on chores and suggests children to break dishes to escape washing them.

With children making up Silverstein’s target audience, the book made its way across households and schools until it was ultimately banned in both Wisconsin and Florida. Considering this, I knew it was a necessary read as I wanted to investigate it further. The poem I chose for this week is “A Light in the Attic” that shares the same name as the collection and appears first.

I had last been to the Punk Rock Flea Market (PRFM) in July, while they were hosting the Seattle Zine Fest. The legendary market is currently hosted at 416 15th Ave E—the retail space of an old QFC. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog's Justin Carder chronicled the PRFM's journey, saying it has filled voids in the community by occupying the retail spaces of at least four shuttered storefronts.

Poetry—like any art form—stands as a positive tool for change. In today’s climate, when the country is most divided, poetry aids in developing one’s rhetoric. A sharp mind is just as important as a sharp sword for battle. Regardless of political party, people tend to focus on how to outwit their opponent and prepare for what they are going to say next. While watching political debates, past and present, I have watched how politicians build and craft arguments on embarrassment while patronizing those longing to be represented. Screaming louder doesn’t win the argument. Using bigger words doesn’t win the argument. Name calling doesn’t win the argument. So what does, then?

Seattle is not often the first place that enters one’s mind in thinking about the fashion industry. When it comes to getting dressed, a casual style is widely accepted. The city has contributed greatly, however, to the business side of things. It is the headquarters of several world-renowned retailers with a legacy in local manufacturing, like Filson (est. 1897), Nordstrom (est. 1901), Eddie Bauer (est. 1920), and REI (est. 1937). Despite not being a fashion capital, even with so many “heritage brands,” Seattle is recognized as a creative city.