Beacon Hill Blog

Benefit concert and Bookfest coming soon

Looking for something to do this weekend and next? All-ages events are scheduled nearby in Rainier Valley each of the next two weekends: one to raise money to help those in need, and one to celebrate the printed word.

Local dance crew Massive Monkees and hip-hop group Blue Scholars will share a stage for the first time again in a benefit show on Sunday, Massive Relief, to raise money for victims of the recent tropical storm Ketsana. The benefit, featuring a b-boy/b-girl (break dance) workshop, food, conversation, live music and more, is open to all ages, and will be held at 2:00 pm October 18 at the Filipino Community Center, 5740 Martin Luther King Jr. Way South. Later that evening there is a 21+ after-party benefit concert, at 8:00 pm at The Crocodile, 2200 Second Avenue in Belltown. (via the P-I’s Big Blog)

The following weekend, Columbia City will be the place for local booklovers to be, with the arrival of the 2009 Seattle Bookfest. The Bookfest will be held on October 24 and 25, from 10:00 am until 6:00 pm at the Columbia City Event Center, the former Columbia School building at 3528 South Ferdinand Street. This is only a block away from Columbia City Station, and also a block away from Rainier Avenue and “downtown” Columbia City. The event will include activities for the whole family, many authors and speakers on three author stages, and lots of local publishers, bookstores, and others displaying their wares.

(Thanks for the correction, PB.)

Tags: all ages, benefit, blue scholars, bookfest, books, columbia city, concert, festival, massive monkees

BHIS awarded $20,000 in new books

Beacon Hill International School recently received $20,000 in new foreign language books for their library, as part of the Symetra Heroes in the Classroom MVP Award, which provides funding to enhance and support learning at Seattle schools.

Each year, schools compete for the MVP Award by developing program proposals to enhance student achievement. BHIS developed the “Heroes at Home” program, which empowers parents, especially non-native English speakers, to assume a more active role in supporting their child’s literacy learning.

The MVP Award funds have been used to purchase hundreds of new books and audio recordings in languages such as Chinese, English, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese for this program.

Heroes at Home will also feature new weekly Family Library Days, in which parents will be invited to volunteer in the library to help children with book selection and check out.

Congratulations to Beacon Hill International School!

Tags: beacon hill elementary, books, seattle seahawks

Beacon Bits: Pets, books, and a neighbor needing help

• It’s not on Beacon Hill, but it’s not too far away — a new pet supply store, Immortal Dog Pet Supply and Bakery, has opened on the 1700 block of Jackson. Despite the name, it’s not for dogs only. It’s nice to have a pet supply store closer to Beacon Hill. (If there’s a closer one, let us know!) — Central District News
• Mary Woodward will discuss her book In Defense of Our Neighbors: The Walt and Milly Woodward Story on Thursday, February 19, at the Beacon Hill Library, 2821 Beacon Avenue South, 6:30 p.m. The event is free. — Seattle Books Examiner
• Phil Weigel of Motorcycle Services, Inc., down the hill in Georgetown, is a long-time member of the Georgetown community who has run into some hard times after a recent broken hip: while Phil was recuperating in the VA here on Beacon Hill, his landlords terminated his month to month lease, and in a very few days he may have nowhere to go. There are many ways you can help; see Blogging Georgetown for details.

Tags: books, cd, georgetown, help, pets

David Mura reading at Beacon Hill Library

This Wednesday, October 15, David Mura will be reading from his novel Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire at the Beacon Hill Library, 2821 Beacon Ave. S., at 6:30 pm. I haven’t read this book yet, but I did read his Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei some years ago, and it was quite good.

Tags: books, library