Our June meeting is cancelled and the Flo Ware event as well as the Art Walk are both cancelled. Although we have no knowledge of what our world will be like in September, it takes months of planning for the ArtWalk and many of those months have already been lost. Even if we are back to “normal” in September, we have not been able to meet and reach out to the participating artists. We hear that Seafair is also cancelled and yes, even the Blue Angels. This will be a relief to Leschi’s many dogs, we are sure! For Angel lovers, the noisemakers have been confirmed for 2021. It is rather alarming to see that the number of new cases of the virus each day is still over 150; perhaps that is a “flattening,” but it sounds rather ominous to the average person We hope that we can hold a meeting in September to elect officers and celebrate a new crop of Leschi Stars! We will accept Star nominations until the end of June; send your nomination to Leschinews@comcast.net. If you wish to run for an office on the Board, please contact Trevor Lalish-Menagh, Chair of the Nominating Committee (email trev@trevreport.org ). You may check out the duties of the various Board positions on our website: Leschinews. At the top select Our Council, then select Documents. This will show you the Constitution and the Bylaws. Go to Article V of the Bylaws: Officers -Duties. This will tell you what you want to know about each position on the Board. Chairpersons of committees are chosen by the President; please contact our President Janice Merrill Brown if you are interested in chairing a committee. We will let you know if we can hold a September meeting on both our Facebook page and the September issue of the Leschi News. ~Diane Snell

I have written about the Post office and its illustrious history before, but now the danger to its existence is imminent with the President calling the institution a “joke.” It is hardly a joke to serve an entire nation in both urban and rural areas, having moved beyond delivery by horses to trains, jet planes, boats and even snowmobiles. What private company would bother with the populations beyond the densely populated areas? No money in that! Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wrote an excellent Op-Ed piece for the New York Times, published April 27, 2020. She extols the virtues of the post office and emphasizes its importance in the voting process. She also offers a solution to the ongoing money problems. Senator Gillibrand suggests these solutions: Allow the Post Office to reinstate its basic banking service. She says that an estimated 10 million people lack banking services in this country and must use the exorbitant “payday” system to cash checks or send money. She notes “it is expensive to be poor in America.” You might ask why not open an account at the local bank? I stood in line behind a young man with brown skin at our local bank where I was making a Leschi CC deposit. When the line grows long, one of the “higher” level persons comes to ask what service each person is seeking and direct them accordingly. When he asked about opening an account, he was told that they didn’t open accounts on this day at this time; she told him when an account might be opened, a time that probably interfered with his working hours. He left looking discouraged. Restrictions like these tend to discourage folks who do not have the luxury to come to the bank at the bank’s convenience. But it is to the bank’s advantage not to have accounts that don’t generate excess funds that can be used by the bank. Step 2. Eliminate the 2006 law requiring that the Post Office prefund their pension and health care benefits 75 years in advance. The Post Office now has a fund that pays for these benefits for persons who have yet to be born. What other agency or business is required to do this? Gillibrand says, “Even the President’s own postal task force determined that if the service were allowed to use the same pay-as-you-go policy as every other agency, it would have been operationally profitable before the pandemic.” Gillibrand then emphasizes the importance of the Post Office in our voting system. As someone who used to work the polls, I was initially sorry to see the change to vote by mail. There was excitement and neighborhood camaraderie at the polls which I would miss, but I have to say it has eliminated many problems. I came to appreciate the new system when I remembered the man who came running into the polling place at 8:02 PM, after I had announced that the polls were closed. Hopefully, this man and others can now find a drop box for their mailed ballot. Voting by mail helps the elderly, the differently abled, mothers with young pre-school age children, those who have to work that day and it helps all of us in the midst of a pandemic. We won’t always have a pandemic, but we here in the Northwest are subject to earthquakes and thinking of a recent anniversary, volcanoes. Voting by mail ensures that we all have the opportunity to vote and hopefully, we exercise that opportunity! The Post Office employs 600,000 persons and has an enviable record of hiring from diverse populations. My own postal carrier is reliable and gets upset when his substitute does something foolish like not delivering the business mail until it was so late the businesses were closed! We are his customers and he wants to take good care of us! Let’s save his job and the other 600,000! ~Diane Snell

Dear Leschi Neighbors, Business first; the LCC Board decided to pause the Flo Ware event and the Leschi Art Walk this calendar year. With the unknown timing, and what it takes for coordination and publicity, this seemed to be the most prudent. We will return with those events stronger than ever in 2021. We also are now entering our summer hiatus for meetings and will resume (hopefully) in September. As for business within the LCC, we will have a bylaw amendment regarding emergency situations that affect voting of new officers. This will be voted on at our September meeting, or whatever is our next meeting.” Emergency Amendment wording as follows: In the event of a publicly declared emergency that impacts the Leschi Community and with a majority vote of the Leschi Community Council Executive Board, the holding of regular meetings can be suspended. Any essential action delayed because of a suspended meeting should be given priority for action at the first meeting possible following such emergency. As I write this, we are moving to the last 11 days of May and we remain under strongly suggested “safety in place” orders. When we reflect what our children’s and grandchildren’s lives will look like in 5, 10 and 20+ years, it is hard for us to imagine. Then again, we have changed so much in the last 10, 20 and 50 years, some of our ancestors would be astonished how our world looked like pre-Covid. Hats off to all of you who have persevered under our unusual circumstances with the Covid-19 virus. It has been an adventure requiring patience, courage and resilience. I know I have experienced at various times, fear, anticipation, peace, energy, and wanting to move out of the country. Unfortunately, there is nowhere to go. And perhaps you might agree with me when I say, “I cannot believe at this stage in my life, this is happening.” We just have to sometimes put one foot in front of the other and push on. Remember to breathe. Remember to focus on today and right now. We have no control over what tomorrow will bring. Let’s be certain we express appreciation for what we do have, whether that encompasses our health, our friendships, our families or our businesses. Just pick up the telephone and say hello to someone you haven’t spoken to in a long time. Please reach out. Be brave. One could be a person that does not feel comfortable reaching out but prefers to be contacted. Get out of your comfort zone, if that sounds like you. If you are someone who always reaches out, understand the reason some people don’t. It doesn’t mean they don’t care about you; they may just be afraid. Additionally, I have observed a broad spectrum of people’s attitudes of our situation. Some people are terrified, and others exercise caution and wear masks and gloves where appropriate. Be sensitive to this and use this opportunity to participate in compassion from your heart. I look forward to seeing you again at our monthly meetings that will resume (if possible) September 9th at 7:00p. The location is the Central Area Senior Center at 500 30th Ave. S., Seattle WA 98144. We will continue to offer exciting new programs and speakers that are relevant to our community. In the meantime, if any of us can be of service to you, please contact any of us. Warm regards, Janice Merrill Brown President, LCC

The Leschi Community would like to recognize and thank the heroes that have made a difference in these trying times. We thank the medical community, the doctors, the nurses, the respiratory therapists, the housekeeping staff and the first responders: firefighters, police and EMTs. We would not have a fighting chance if you were not out there day after day helping to save lives, often without the proper protective equipment. You are the true heroes in this nightmare. We want to thank the community businesses that stood by in the worst of times to offer needed services. Even in the loss of their owner and mentor, Steve Shulman, the staff at Leschi Market took steps to thoroughly clean and reopen with safety measures in place and special shopping hours for the vulnerable seniors so that we had a grocery resource in these difficult times. Thank you to Bart Evans, BluWater Bistro, who creatively filled in when we lost our caffeine options in the abrupt closure of Starbucks. He offered a pop-up coffee option at 6am to keep the energy flowing and initiated take-out meals with FREE delivery within 2 miles. BluWater meals have been a delicious diversion from the usual home concoctions that often lack one of the non-optional ingredients. And thank you to Bart for his free lunches to medical staff! Central Pizza and Mt. Baker’s Mioposto and That’s Amore offered take-out meals as well as several Madrona restaurants. The Central Area Senior Center, despite the cancellation of events and classes, continued to provide hot meals at lunch for pick-up or delivery and offered grocery shopping services to those who could not get out. Thank you for looking after our most vulnerable population! Thanks to Park Postal for staying open to provide an essential service when we still have no post office in our area. And thank you to Grocery Outlet employees for continuing to serve the community in these dangerous times. Thank you to the volunteers who keep the local food banks going in this critical time. If you have any disposable income, consider donating funds to either St. Mary’s Food Bank or the Rainier Valley Food Bank. Both serve our area. Giving funds allows them to fill in the gaps and minimizes the physical contact for their volunteers. Let’s not allow families to go hungry in the land of plenty; food doesn’t trickle down. And last but not least, a huge THANK YOU to our postal workers who keep on their daily rounds delivering mail despite the risks both from the virus and the threats from the other Washington. We need you and we appreciate you! ~The Leschi Community Council Board: Janice Merrill Brown, Trevor Lalish-Menagh, Janet Oliver, Tracy Bier, John Barber & Diane Snell

Part I Since all the venues for art are closed, I invite you to walk or bike through our neighborhoods and discover the amazing public art everywhere. Scott Murase with Murase Associates Shadow Wall photo by Susan Platt My most exciting “discovery” was the recently completed Shadow Wall sculpture in the Jimi Hendrix Park. Designed by Scott Murase, who also beautifully designed the whole park to suggest a guitar, the Shadow Wall evokes the rhythms of music. From the entrance at 2400 S Massachusetts Ave, the Hendrix signature on the wall leads us on a purple (now faded to blue) swirling path inscribed with the words of Hendrix famous songs “Angel” and “Little Wing” and as well as horizontal strips with a succinct biography of Hendrix’s amazing life from humble beginnings in the Central District of Seattle to world-wide fame and acknowledgment of his brilliant innovations in music. The path leads to the large red butterfly that hangs over the seating area, intended for performance and community gatherings. From there, we approach the newly installed Shadow Wall. From a portrait of Hendrix, it swirls out with a perforated steel curtain that creates vibrant shadows, including silhouette cut outs of the musician. Appropriate to the innovative Hendrix, it takes a conventional sculpture into a new level of movement. Part II There is more to enjoy just across Martin Luther King Jr, Way. Have you seen the Philosophical Promenade by Keith Beckley and Dennis Evans on the way into the I 90 lid pedestrian and bike tunnel with its imagery and cairns and as well as texts embedded in the sidewalk? The carefully chosen quotes from people like Plato and Jung will expand your day. Not far away is the Urban Peace Circle dedicated to children killed by gun violence. It was designed by Gerard Tsutakawa, son of George, in 1994! Everyone in Leschi is familiar with the stupendous Dream Catcher at Yesler and 32nd St. Designed by Lawney L. Reyes in 2003 in honor of his brother Bernie Whitebear and sister Luana Reyes, The Dream Catcher wards off evil. Take another look! Inside the dreamcatcher are images that seem to refer to animals, nature and humans, all being protected. That is what we need right now. The salmon sculpture Homecoming created in 1999 by Tom Jay, in Nora’s Woods on the corner of 29th and Columbia refers to the homecoming of Coho Salmon, now so threatened. In this period of staying close to home, Nora’s Woods is a wonderful respite, the result of one woman’s vision and determination with the collaboration of many people in the community. Dion Henderson The Peoples Wall 1970 detail Do you know about The People’s Wall designed and painted by Dion Henderson in 1970 at 20th and Spruce? Its sequence of potent images is still easy to interpret as a reference to the history of the Panthers. It is dedicated to nine fallen Panthers: Sydney Miller, Welton Butch Armstead, Albert Postel, Larry War, Lewis Jackson, Maud Allen, Carolyn Downs, Jim Graves and Henry Boyer. Seek out the subtle stone sculptures by James W. Washington, Jr, throughout our neighborhood. Mt Zion Baptist Church has the largest work, The Oracle of Truth 1987 outside their entrance; Meany Middle School moved V Obelisk 1970 to near its new front door, Odessa Brown Clinic’s My Testimony in Stone 1981 at 2101Yesler almost hides under a bush, and Children’s Touchstone with Eagles 1991 is outside Bailey-Gatzert Elementary at 1301 Yesler. James W Washington, V Obelisk, 1970, outside Meany Middle School, photo by Henry Matthews You can walk past James Washington’s home at 1816 26th Ave, preserved as an historic landmark by the incredible foresight of the artist. Through the fence you see the wrapped-up Fountain of Triumph 1995, a sculpture about salmon migration that used to be on 23rd near Union. Hopefully, it will return nearby soon. On the corner of 26th and Howell is the home of Tim Fowler, our own local Gaudi. You can’t miss his mosaic wall, animals and people as well as his collection of old parts and cars. Speaking of Union Street, revisit the Liberty Bank Building that this paper has already discussed. It has a lot of public art visible from the street, including the seats by Esther Ervin and poetry by Minnie Collins. Tim Fowler home at 26th and Howell On Madison St, just West of the arboretum entrance, look at the simple 3-part stone memorial to Kate Fleming, the talented audio artist who drowned near that location in a flash flood in 2006. In Volunteer Park take another look at Isamu Noguchi’s Black Sun, 1969. Its circular form with unusual indentations and an empty center was carved from a single piece of Brazilian granite. It creates a focal point for the park and its view. But if you look at Black Sun itself, it can feel like a celebration or a warning according to the lighting and our mood. Finally, a new, anonymous piece just appeared at the Galer entrance to Interlaken Park, with its stunning old growth grove of cedar trees. Someone placed there two chairs separated by a six-foot-long bar suggesting “Communicate, Connect.” You can read the amazing quotes painstakingly written on the chairs. Here is one of them A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. They experience themselves, their thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of their consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. ~Albert Einstein. ~Susan Platt Art & Politics Now

With the substantial decrease in travel due to stay-at-home orders in response to the coronavirus, many urban areas have seen declines in the byproducts of combustion. But has this decline translated into a significant improvement in our air quality? And how does Seattle’s improvement compare to other cities across the world? The pollutant around the world with the most dramatic drop in levels due to the coronavirus has been nitrogen oxide. Nitrogen oxide is formed during the combustion of fossil fuels due to the resulting heat allowing oxygen and nitrogen to bond. However, air pollution is not simply a factor of the pollutants emitted into the air; it is also related to the weather patterns that an area experiences. For example, the inversions we typically see a few times during the winter trap moisture and pollutants near the surface, enshrouding Western Washington in a thick layer of smog while higher elevation spots like the Issaquah Alps bask in sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures. Governor Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order was issued on 3/23, but traffic began a long-term downtrend during the first week of March. It bottomed out around the end of March and has been very slowly rising over the past month. Interestingly, in Seattle, nitrogen oxide concentrations only began to decrease at the end of March despite the month-long decrease in transportation, and this was likely due in part to a shift in the weather pattern to cleaner, onshore flow towards the end of the month. Still, the change from average has been slight, with nitrogen oxide concentrations only about 10–20% less than usual. In other words, the decrease in traffic has decreased the amount of nitrogen oxide over Seattle, but the decrease has been relatively slight and was only realized after a shift in the weather pattern. The decrease has been much more dramatic for other cities. Los Angeles often sees a ton of nitrogen oxide to hefty transportation emissions, but they were 40% below their baseline as of mid-April. At Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, declines were even more stark, with nitrogen oxide levels reaching nearly 1/3rd of the 2015–2019 average during the lockdown. Restrictions on travel have eased since, and levels are now only 10–20% below average. With all the hardship and suffering caused by the coronavirus, finding silver linings can take quite a bit of work. But hopefully we can rejoice in knowing that the air we breathe is cleaner in a socially distant world, even if only a little bit. ~Charlie Phillips Charlie Phillips, a Madrona resident, received his B.S. in atmospheric sciences from the University of Washington and works in Portland as a meteorologist. Check out his weather website at charlie.weathertogether.net .

Before there was the pandemic, there were the bushfires. This morning it is sunny and warm. From my bed I can see a blue sky freckled with white clouds. Cockatoos and parrots flit past. All seems calm and comfortable. From outside I can hear the usual bustling of a farm morning, but beyond our acreage the national park is drowned in an eerie quietness. At eye-level, my window reveals the scars of the recent fires and floods that have ravaged New South Wales. The forest that slopes down the hill looks like a moonless midnight. From the trees emanates a force that I imagine a black hole would feel like... A resounding absence of life. Here in Taralga, a blink of a town on the outskirts of the Blue Mountains National Park, they have experienced the disaster that much of the country has seen in the past months. In January, an enormous bushfire raged through the area. Thankfully, the rural community’s volunteer fire-fighting service saved almost all residences, but the surrounding mountains are decimated. The fires are a daily topic of conversation, whether in the city or the country. A two-year drought has plagued Australia and, combined with increasing restrictions against controlled burning, the bush was in a prime state for a major fire. Local “fireys” at the pub explain how the increase of residents in rural areas has put a halt to the necessary hazard reduction burns. (Compared with 100 years ago, there are many more human assets scattered about so controlled burning poses too much risk.) Those who have not had flames in their fields are not optimistic that they have been spared: “It’s not an ‘if,’ but a ‘when’.” Because of the buildup of fuel, these fires have burnt more furiously than ever before. The flames are not 2 meters but 60 meters tall, moving as fast as 50 miles an hour. Skills that have been honed for survival in this environment, such as climbing trees or rapid ground cover, are no longer enough to save the Australian wildlife. White bones are scattered unceremoniously amidst the singed forest. Australia is famous for having “four seasons in a day.” The weather changes on a dime; storms brew from clear skies and hail replaces sun rays in less than a minute. Locals say the swings have gotten more extreme in the past years. Only days after the fire here in the Blue Mountains, the heavens opened and more than 200ml of rain poured down in a matter of hours. The debris of the incineration was swept down hillsides by the ash-tainted water. Blackened trees took their final bows, rocks tumbled loose. It hasn’t rained this much here since 1961. Neighbors passing each other on washed out roads roll down the windows of their utes and ask: “what’s next!?” The traumatized wildlife in this region that managed to survive the blazing heat, smoke, and starvation were then met with freezing temperatures and torrential rains. The flood conditions were exceptionally perilous for the already exposed and defenseless animals. Tragically ironic, most of those who survived the burning died of hypothermia... Amid the fire’s bones are the flood’s carcasses of iconic Australian animals: kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, koalas, and more. Walking amid the destruction, we mourn. It is silent. And still. Save for some red-bellied black snakes which I scream at. I am staying with Dr. Andrea Harvey, an energetic vet originally from the UK. Andrea is heavily involved in the ongoing debate regarding brumby management. She is currently finishing a PhD on wild horse welfare analysis and is on the scientific advisory board for wild horse management in Kosciusko National Park. We discuss the various angles of the concerns regarding the brumby population in Australia as we feed her herd of 30+ rescued brumbies and do chores around the yard. She shares with me valuable insights from her research and involvement in the debate over brumby welfare and appropriate management. Along with horses, the yard is “chocker block” with goats, geese, sheep, chooks, cockatoos, parrots, donkeys, kangaroos, and more. All rescues, a couple still have special privileges, like Gertie the goat who lives on my veranda and keeps me on a strict curfew (she’ll start bleating if I’m late to bed). Toffee the rescue kitten also lives in my quarters. She’s a bit laxer about when we go to bed but wouldn’t be caught dead letting me sleep alone. My favorite four-legged resident is the wombat who’s bunking in the feed room as he recovers from mange and hypothermia. (You have to be careful not to disturb his snoozies when getting grain.) We finally got electricity back on Thursday (it has been out for two weeks). There were whoops of celebration as hot water finally trickled out of the shower head. Thankfully, I had not opened the freezer while the power was out… as I’m not sure if the snake in the plastic bag would have un-thawed enough to regain consciousness. As always, much more to come soon… ~Cello Lockwood

The United Nations Human Rights, Office of The High Commissioner says, “Housing is a Right, not a commodity.” It’s wrong when housing is treated as a vehicle for wealth and investment, rather than a social good. The financialization of housing has a detrimental impact on human rights, in particular the right to housing from mass forced evictions to make way for luxury developments, to nameless corporations purchasing real estate from remote boardrooms, to empty homes and people pushed out of their communities because they simply could not afford to live there” I recently had an encounter with investors who purchase lots of single-family homes as commodities, place them in LLCs, rent out rooms of these homes while waiting for the property’s value to increase so that they can then sell them for a profit. Nicholas Halberg and Bryce Malone of Buck Buys Houses emailed me on 3/23/20 offering to purchase my home. I let them know that I wasn’t interested. They sent me a card the next day which explained that they wanted to purchase 100+ single family homes specifically in Leschi. They claimed to represent an investor who had recently located to the Seattle area. This story ran in the Seattle Times on 4/13/20. After much investigation, Daniel Beekman Times Reporter, traced Buck Buys Homes to founders James Dainard and Will Heaton. Together they have purchased 570 homes in King County since 2006 and purchased 250 after the Great Recession between 2008–2015 in the CD, Rainier Valley, White Center and Lake City, primarily through a network of hundreds of shell corporations. The homes are usually purchased at an average of 22% below assessed values. Dainaid thinks the Coronavirus pandemic is also a great opportunity for Real Estate investors. In other words, these guys prey on people’s fears and when they are down on their luck. They are rearing their ugly heads again, in Leschi. This is how it usually plays out. You will receive an unsolicited, aggressive offer to buy your home, rarely for the true market value, usually thousands less. They will give you quick cash, sight unseen. Older homeowners are targeted who are usually on a fixed income. If the owner sells, they find out later that they were cheated. Now they don’t have the home and are out of thousands of dollars in equity. Please, Leschi neighbors, if you must sell your property, list your home with an agent, sell to a family, get top dollar. Houses in the area are selling in 4–5 days (with multiple bidders) and know that you’ve helped keep your neighborhood. In fact. I’d much rather you hold onto your valuable property. If you have coronavirus jitters take advantage of all of the government programs out there to help us through this crisis, mortgage forbearance, enhanced unemployment, small business loans and grants, Some of these programs are slow to get started because things happened so quickly and systems weren’t up and running but they will be on track soon. There is a new income limit of $58,423 per year for the Senior, Veteran and Disabled Property Tax Exemption, which is already up and running, and John Wilson, Tax Assessor is working on a Homestead Exemption to help middle class property owners. There are other ways to get additional income. You can rent rooms, like Dainard does while waiting for a good time to flip, try Airbnb, rent yard space, work from home, sell 1/2 of your property and build a basement or garage apartment with the proceeds. The point is, with a home you have lots of options. Buck Buys Houses is only one of many predatory Investors, developers, or scamsters looking to rip us off from our valuable land. Anyone advising you to not list your property should be suspect. What makes the rogue investors so scandalous is they are many times slumlords who refuse to make repairs and charge exorbitant rents which lead to mass evictions, they contribute to neighborhood blight, the owners of the properties are often difficult to track down and they steal the American Dream of Homeownership from so many. ~Ruby Holland, keepyourhabitat@gmail.com

Hello Fellow Leschi Dwellers, First the business. We will not have our monthly LCC meeting in May. Hopefully for our June meeting, we will be able to gather together again. We are also still pausing a decision as to our Leschi Art Walk taking place in September. We expect to know by our next newsletter publication at the end of May. Here we are still in the midst of being “safe at home”. What is fascinating about this ‘enemy’ of ours, is that it crosses all nations, cultures, races, religions and economic circumstances. The amazing consequence is a collection of the most brilliant minds in the world working together to create a cure and or vaccine for this virus. It has caused most of us to slow down, be kinder, more understanding and thoughtful. Those with children have the opportunity to really know those little humans and engage in family time. There is an inordinate amount of sharing, striving toward a common goal and I truly believe our inner lives will be forever changed. Change can be scary, uncomfortable and yet ultimately amazing results will come from it. Do not feel you are alone. We all have insecurities we don’t want to let on we have. It’s really okay. This is a time to engage with others and make certain we take care of ourselves, both physically and mentally. You are not alone...I promise you. I am sharing a “Break out of a Rut in 30 days” plan with you from our work group you may find interesting. Some of you may know I am a long-time real estate broker and our business is social in nature. I personally have been challenged on some days to stay upbeat and engaged. I’m pretty sure others reading this newsletter have felt the same way. Here it is: a. Exercise Daily—what you are able to do b. Don’t drink calories—soda, alcohol c. Don’t sleep too much or too little d. Never skip meals e. Never allow negativity around you. f. Journal g. Pray h. Say what you are grateful for i. Review your written goals j. Laugh daily k. Personal growth—books, audio l. Do a hobby daily m. Focus on others n. Protect and limit alone time o. If working, don’t work more than 50 hrs./week *If any of you have questions about this plan, please feel free to contact me. Finally, now more than any other time, hold those doctors, nurses, first responders, grocery workers, delivery people, truck drivers and the research scientists working diligently to deliver cures, assistance, hope, and those who care for the grieving in your hearts, minds and thoughts. Pray, in whatever way is of comfort to you, for their safety and a swift resolution to this common, new enemy of ours. Call someone, send a note to your police precinct, mailman, neighbors, friends or simply reach out and express gratitude for those in your life. If you need anything at all—even to hear another voice, please call. We are there for you. I wish you health, lots of laughter, peace and an outlook for our future that will be inclusive. You matter. Always remember that. My heartfelt regards for you and your family. ~Janice Merrill Brown President, Leschi Community Council

Part I John Akomfrah’s “Future History” (until May 3, 2020) majestically fills three major galleries on the fourth floor of the Seattle Art Museum with video works projected on huge walls in separate darkened rooms. Spanning 500 years of history from the beginning of the slave trade in Elizabethan England to the present moment, each work is immersive and mesmerizing. We first encounter Vertigo Sea of 2015. Projected as three large adjacent images, it overwhelms us. Sometimes the images flow from one to another, other times they sharply clash. If you have ever seen one of David Attenborough’s BBC nature films, you will recognize some of his incredible footage: the artist gained permission to use it after befriending Attenborough for a full year. But Akomfrah goes the extra step that Attenborough only touches on in his most recent film: climate crises caused by our own actions. Video still from Vertigo Sea, 2015, John Akomfrah, three channel HD color video installation, 7.1 sound, 48 minutes 30 seconds, © Smoking Dogs Films; Courtesy Lisson Gallery He juxtaposes stunning nature sequences with the murder of humans in the slave trade and the hunting of whales. We watch horrified as the spears enter the animal and the helpless whale bleeds into the sea and dies, even as another screen celebrates their beauty. We gasp in disbelief at the reenactment of slaves forced overboard alive. Akomfrah gives us the unrelenting brutalities of genocide by hunters of animals and people who shared a single-minded goal - to make money. Interspersed in the film are many quotes including Moby Dick and Heathcote Williams 1988 poem Whale Nation: “From space, the planet is blue/ From space the planet is the territory/Not of humans/ but of the whale.” Occasionally the sequences take a breath with three blank blue screens. But you will not be able to stop watching. Akomfrah spoke of the flux and fluidity of water as suggesting the past, present and future. Our bodies are 90 percent water. But rather than acknowledge our connection to the sea, the planet, and its occupants, he stated, our hyper consumerism is destroying it. The second film Angel of History, 1995, gives us Afro- Futurism: musicians, writers, poets, actors, journalists, philosophers and techies. As described by Greg Tate “It’s like a beautiful compendium of the cats who were obsessed with what I call the “imagineering” of ideas—putting Black folks in a science fiction setting, in the future, or in the retro-future, listening back to ancient African kingdoms as a kind of science fiction fodder.” (Capitol Bop, interview 2015) Seventeen creative thinkers, ranging from the cosmic musician Sun Ra to Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek actress, spin off Tate’s idea that “all those things that you read about- alien abduction and genetic transformation- they already happened. How much more alien do you think it gets than slavery, than entire mass populations moved and genetically altered, forcibly dematerialized?” (quoted by Kodwo Eshun). Tate died last fall at the young age of 60. The third piece Tropikos 2016 silently and chillingly presents the historical roots of the slave trade in Plymouth, England, the major slave trading port during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Here Akomfrah quotes from Paradise Lost and The Tempest. He segues from images of the royal family and its pirates, decked out in the riches from the slave trade, to a silent raft moving up the river Tamar. The raft holds one slave with his back to us as well as potatoes, pineapples and a sculpture of Akuaba associated with childbirth in Ghana. According to curator Pam McClusky it evokes the yearning to return home. Part II Aaron Fowler’s “Into Existence” (until June 28, 2020) in the Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight gallery, brings us another young cutting-edge winner of the Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight award. Fowler collects trash to bring “into existence” homages to friends and family. It metamorphoses into deeply spiritual imagery. Baby J celebrates his nephew’s birthday, with a delightful neon extension across the wall evoking one of the toys at a children’s party. Amerocco joins America and Morocco, honoring a friend from Morocco. We see the artist washing his friend’s feet in a last supper scene attended by his friends. In Pops and Me Fowler collaborates with his father in a workshop. At the entrance to the gallery, he sets an imprisoned friend free in Debo Free. After admiring the brilliant transformations of discarded junk, we can explore the spirituality that permeate all of the works. Part III “Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstract Variations” (until June 28, 2020) includes seven works from the first decade of the artist’s career starting with drawings created on the high plains of West Texas in the teens to her 1920s abstractions promoted by Alfred Stieglitz in New York City. The works change from soft to hard edged. Look for the unmissable symbolism shift in Gray Lines with Black Blue and Yellow, 1923, right before she married Stieglitz. The Stieglitz photograph of O’Keeffe is from right after they met: it is obviously post-sex. Today we would call that exploitation. Georgia O’Keeffe spent the rest of her life contradicting that utter exposure. We see resistance already setting in with the sharp angles of Black, White and Blue, 1930. ~Susan N. Platt, Ph.D. www.artandpoliticsnow.com

What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath— the most sacred of times? Cease from travel. Cease from buying and selling. Give up, just for now, on trying to make the world different than it is. Sing. Pray. Touch only those to whom you commit your life. Center down. And when your body has become still, reach out with your heart. Know that we are connected in ways that are terrifying and beautiful. (You could hardly deny it now.) Know that our lives are in one another’s hands. (Surely, that has come clear.) Do not reach out your hands. Reach out your heart. Reach out your words. Reach out all the tendrils of compassion that move, invisibly, where we cannot touch. Promise this world your love– for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, so long as we all shall live. ~Lynn Ungar 3/11/20 [reprinted by permission of the author] Lynn Ungar’s first book of poetry, Blessing the Bread, earned her fans around the world. In her professional life she serves as a minister for the Church of the Larger Fellowship, an online congregation for Unitarian Universalists and other religious liberals. In her free time, she trains dogs for competition in obedience, agility and canine musical freestyle (dancing with dogs). She is also an avid singer and contra dancer. Lynn lives on the east side of the San Francisco Bay with two Australian Shepherds.

Cost is always a major opposing point to reparations. I echo Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who asked about cost when millionaires and billionaires were given a tax break? Furthermore, who asked about the cost of flying Melania Trump back and forth between New York and D. C. or the president on his many golf outings? Who asks about the cost of military installations around the world? (Finding the number is difficult because installation covers much space: “a military base, camp, post, station, yard, center, homeport facility).” Around 600 are overseas. How much do we spend in foreign aid? We were told our country was rebuilding Iraq; now we learn that too was untrue. So, where did the money go? How many millions were found in the walls of Saddam Hussein’s palaces? Surely you can think of spending that could be cut or eliminated. Furthermore, this act refers to Washington only, a minuscule number of contracts in the country. Before I submit this, I’ll most likely have come up with more suggestions for reparations. You yourself may have ideas. For much too long, African Americans have been marginalized, left out, ignored. Despite ability, talent, desire, effort, African Americans have not always had opportunities in any area. Our country has committed heinous deeds, slavery at the top or certainly near the top of any list. These deeds cannot be undone, but financial compensation could at least provide a means of acknowledging descendants of those whose personhood was never acknowledged. Financial compensation could provide a semblance of racial justice. According to Washington’s Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises, “In the five years before the passage of I-200, state agencies spent an average of 10 percent of their public contracting dollars on small businesses owned by minorities. In the 20 years after I-200 passed, that rate has fallen to an average of 3 percent. That translates to $3.5 billion dollars lost in earnings.” Stated another way, before I-200, minorities received 10¢ of each $1.00; after the passage of I-200, minorities received 3¢ of every $1.00. Port of Seattle Commissioner Stephanie Bowman said, “We have empirical evidence that disparity has grown, meaning opportunity has been denied to those who have not had the traditional advantages of contracting.” Bowman then added, “I would ask you a question: How many Caucasian males have come before this committee saying that they have not had enough work in the last 20 years?” Thanks to each of you who voted to accept Referendum 88. Perhaps the day will soon come when more persons will see that such an act as Referendum 88 would contribute to the movement of this small section of the country on the road to parity. ~Georgia S. McDade, Ph. D.