Beacon Hill Blog

Help plant demonstration bean garden

ROCKit Community Arts and the Beacon Hill Garden Club invite neighbors to help plant a demonstration garden at El Centro de la Raza later this week. The garden is planned to feature 24 cedar planters with over 20 varieties of beans, creating “the neighborhood’s first free veggie u-pick.”

Planting starts on Thursday, May 23 from 4-6:30 p.m. and continues on Friday, May 24 at the same time. On Saturday, May 25, the planting party takes place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Volunteers should bring a trowel and gloves; everything else will be provided. El Centro de la Raza is located at 2524 16th Ave. S.

Tags: garden club, gardening

Celebrate the arts at the Franklin High School Arts Festival

Elizabeth Lowry, co-chair of the Franklin High School Arts Festival, sends this announcement:

Imagination. Swagger. Creativity. Culture. Intensity. Irony. Empathy. Everything comes together in the visual art and performances that Franklin High School students will present this week during the school’s yearly arts festival and talent show.

“The Mt. Baker Quakermaker Shaker” is the theme of this year’s festival, which begins with an art opening at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, May 16, at Mioposto, 3601 S. McClellan St. The FHS talent show is the main attraction Friday, May 17, starting at 7 p.m. in the school’s auditorium, 3013 S. Mount Baker Blvd. The arts festival will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 18, on the plaza in front of FHS.

The events, which are open to the public, bring together students, their families, teachers and staff and Mount Baker neighbors. The festival raises money to benefit Franklin’s art, drama and music programs and student clubs, while the talent show raises money for the senior class of 2015. Tickets to the talent show are $3 for FHS students and $5 for others. The art opening and the arts festival are free.

The festival will feature student performances, including the steel drum band, fashion club, jazz band, Quaker band and lion dancers, along with displays of visual art, ceramics and wood arts. Student clubs will sell heirloom tomato and vegetable plants, treats and handmade crafts. Also for sale are woodcrafts, such as cutting boards, created by students and notecards featuring student art. Vietnamese sandwiches, chips and soft drinks also will be for sale. 

The arts festival is sponsored by the Franklin High School PTSA and the Franklin High student body.



For details and updates, find us on Facebook, check franklinhs.seattleschools.org, or email elizabethlowry@comcast.net.

Tags: franklin hs

5/18: Food Forest work party and communal soft sculpture art project

The Friends of the Beacon Food Forest have sent out an announcement of an upcoming work party and communal art project, along with some status updates about the project. Read on:

Community Work Party and Communal Soft Sculpture Art project

When: Saturday May 18th, 10am- 2pm

Where: BFF Site, 15th Ave S and S. Dakota St

What: Family farm and art event all people welcomed and appreciated. We’ll be doing a variety of farm building projects suitable for all ages. Some of the tasks we’ll do are: organize the plant nursery and repot larger plants, fill in the hose bib and irrigation trenches, build more forest floor by sheet mulching, plant beneficial plants around our trees, broadcast some seeds, build retaining walls for the P-Patches, build community and share a meal.

Dress appropriately for the weather, wear sturdy shoes and bring your work gloves. We need tools and wheel barrows. Please bring an item of clothing to donate to our community sculpture project, see description below.

Food: There will be a Biochar stove demonstration that will cook some pizza for lunch and create nutritious soil amendment at the same time. Never heard of a Biochar stove? come by on the 18th and check it out. We’ll also have pasta and sauces, bread etc and hopefully some desserts if anyone offers to make some. If you contribute a food item lunch is on us, for all others we ask 2$ suggested donation. Please contact Judi at foodforestvolunteer@gmail.com if you have questions.

BFF Fence Line Clothing Project and You
Community Fabric Sculpture Project

We would like to turn our construction fencing into a soft sculpture symbol of community power. Please bring one or more items of clothing to donate to the May 18th Work Party to decorate the fence.

Strung up on a long fence, long sleeve shirts will look like they are holding hands, pants will be their legs, and hats may be their heads. Farmer’s overalls and uniforms are one complete package. Long sleeved children’s clothing will look like they are holding and swinging from the arms of their family. We would love to see over 100 linear feet of community cloth decoratively surrounding the BFF.

And we share, if you are walking by and need a little more warmth (or style baby) you can gather it, you can practice your Beacon Food Forest ethical harvesting skills!
Please bring at least one, ARTicle of clothing to decorate/donate to your fence as a massive symbol of community support. If you have sturdy safety pins bring those too we’ll also have some. This is a temporary installment but hopes to be effective while up. All clothes will be donated to Goodwill when they come down. Questions about this project contact glennherlihy@speakeasy.net.

BFF Quick Updates:

• Juniper Timber ADA bed retaining walls are complete. Thank you Timber Team.
• Lower bench food forest area water system is up and running. Thank You Irrigation Team
• Two Bee Hives have been installed by our bee keeper Bob Redmond. Bee Keeping workshops coming soon. Thanks Bob
• UW Design build program is building our gather plaza structures off site to be installed late May early June. Thank You UW
• Sign Project is progressing beautifully, soon we will have a world class self guided tour of the scientific and social benefits of food forestry on site.
  Thanks Molly and Mathew of mdml.co
• Steering Committee (SteerCo) is working hard on governance and guiding principles. Go Steerco!
• Site Development Committee meets every Tuesday at the BH Library 6:30pm. Absolutely persistent power!
• We are continuing to experience country wide media attention and massive Face Book participation.
• BFF is positive change, by acting local and effecting the global. Remember that bumper sticker? you are achieving it.
• Next work party June 15th.

Tags: food forest

Mother’s Day parade marches on Saturday, 5/11

We don’t get a lot of parades on Beacon Hill, but this Saturday, May 11, a Mother’s Day parade will start at Stevens Place Park (otherwise known as the triangle park) at 2 p.m. and parade for about six blocks, ending at Roberto Maestes Festival Street next to Beacon Hill Station.

According to the organizers, the parade is all-ages fun, with this message:

Honor moms and highlight the need for:

• Comprehensive state-funded childcare for working and poor families
• End domestic violence – Free Marissa Alexander
• Stop deportations – Keep immigrant families together
• Increase funding for jobs, public schools, Social Security and human services
• Tax the rich – End U.S. militarism

All who want to participate are welcome, and should gather at Stevens Place Park at Beacon Avenue South and South Stevens at 1:30 p.m. Bring strollers, tricycles, banners, signs and festive attire. The event will also feature an information fair, speakers, face-painting, balloons and music.

The parade is sponsored by Sisters Organize for Survival and the Pacific Northwest Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander. For more information, contact Helen Gilbert at (206)722-6057, or at Sis4Survival@gmail.com.

Tags: parades

Beacon: A Hill of Beans at Cinco de Mayo Saturday

Christina Olson of the Beacon Hill Garden Club writes:

If you wander over to El Centro Saturday afternoon to enjoy Cinco de Mayo, be sure to stop by the Beacon: A Hill of Beans booth under the big tent. We’ll have free seeds (purple pod pole beans and green bush beans) along with some advice to get you started.

Chat about plans to plant the 24 planters around the parking lot with heritage beans and create Beacon’s first public U-Pick! We are looking for planting help later in the month. And let us tell you about the plans to bedeck the Beacon business district with pots of scarlet runner beans (beware of low flying hummingbirds in these locations)

Finally, shop local with our selection of heirloom seeds (see www.beaconahillofbeans.org for varieties). Mother’s Day is May 12, and Father’s Day is June 16 and everyone loves an unexpected token of friendship, beautifully packaged in envelopes designed by Maura Shapley of local Day Moon Press.

Join us in making Beacon: A Hill of Beans in 2013!

Tags: gardening

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo this Saturday at El Centro de la Raza

All Beacon Hill neighbors are invited to celebrate at El Centro de la Raza’s 8th Annual Cinco de Mayo Celebration this Saturday, May 4, from 1-5 p.m. at El Centro, 2524 16th Ave S., and on Roberto Maestas Festival Street next to Beacon Hill Station in North Beacon Hill. Admission and parking are free for this event celebrating Mexican heritage with music, prizes, children’s activities, craft and informational booths and traditional Mexican foods for sale.

This year’s live entertainment features performances by Ce Atl Tonalli Danza Azteca, Chief Sealth MEChLA Dance Group, the Seattle Fandango Project and a desfile cultural by the José Martí Child Development Center showcasing cultural attire.

See the event page on Facebook here.

Tags: el centro de la raza

Time to clean up at recycling/shredding event

If your spring cleaning efforts have turned up some old computers, cell phones, refrigerators or the like, you might want to make your way to the Rainier Community Center’s northeast parking lot at 4600 38th Ave. S. on Saturday, April 27, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., for free electronic recycling and paper shredding.

Items accepted for recycling include appliances, electronics, lawn equipment, bikes (to be donated to BikeWorks), metals, batteries, and more. See the official flyer for details and a list of restricted items. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Windermere Foundation and the Rainier Community Center’s youth scholarship program. Donation receipts will be available.

Tags: recycling

Elnah Jordan, Eric Verlinde, and Tom McElroy perform at Garden House Blues

The Garden House Blues series returns this Friday, April 19, when Elnah Jordan, Eric Verlinde, and Tom McElroy perform at the Garden House, 2336 15th Ave. S. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the concert starts at 8 p.m.

Vocalist Elnah Jordan performed the role of the legendary Bessie Smith in San Francisco for 2-1/2 years in The Evolution of the Blues, and later starred in Street Dreams, an Off-Broadway musical drama. She has since built a reputation as a powerful singer in jazz, R&B, gospel and blues. Pianist Eric Verlinde‘s fifth CD, Firewalker, collects some of his more than 150 compositions ranging “from Latin jazz to swinging hard-bop.” Jazz guitarist Tom McElroy will open the show.

Before the show begins, Beacon Bento will be available with meals delivered to your table from Inay’s Kitchen and Travelers Thali House for $10 or less per meal.

For more info, see the website.

Tags: garden house, music

See, hear, walk and create at Kimball Art Walk 4/11

This Thursday afternoon, April 11, is a great time to take a walk on Beacon Avenue for the Second Annual Kimball Elementary School Art Walk. From 3:30 to 5 p.m., businesses on Beacon Avenue between Tippe and Drague (3315 Beacon Avenue South) and Beacon Hill Dental Associates (3051 Beacon Avenue South) will display art by Kimball students. Businesses participating will be marked with bright, colorful flags.

The street will also be lined with booths featuring art activities, and the school choir and ukulele band will perform. All neighbors are invited to see, hear and make some art with the Kimball community and friends.

View Kimball Art Walk 2013 in a larger map

Tags: art walk, children, kimball

Stories for Boys at Beacon Hill Library 4/28

The Beacon Hill branch of the Seattle Public Library is hosting a free dramatic reading from Gregory Martin’s Stories for Boys: A Memoir from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 28. The reading, adapted and directed by Laura Ferri, will be performed by Book-It Repertory Theatre.

Admission is free and all are welcome; no ticket or reservation is necessary. The library is located at 2821 Beacon Ave. S. in North Beacon Hill.

Stories for Boys was chosen as this year’s Seattle Reads book. The book details author Gregory Martin’s struggle in coming to terms with revelations of his father’s homosexuality following an attempted suicide, and tells stories about his own parenting of two young sons.

For more information on the reading or Seattle Reads, call 206-386-4636.

Tags: books, performances