Tag Archives: books

Arts, Local Events

Stories for Boys at Beacon Hill Library 4/28

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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.

Arts, Local Events

Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind book release party tonight

Tonight at 7 p.m., ROCKiT is co-hosting a free book release event for Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind: Concrete Ways to Support Families in Social Justice Movements and Communities, edited by Victoria Law and China Martens.

Victoria and local contributors Andrea Givens and Simon Knaphus will be at the Garden House tonight for a reading, discussion, and celebration of the book, billed as “a collection of concrete tips, suggestions, and narratives on ways that non-parents can support parents, children, and caregivers in their communities, social movements, and collective processes.”

All ages are invited and welcome to attend. The Garden House is located at 2336 15th Ave. S.

Arts, Education, Life on the Hill

Little Free Library comes to 16th Avenue South

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The side of the Little Free Library says, “Take a Book / Share a Book.” Photo by Wendi Dunlap,.

A new library — a very tiny one — sprouted this weekend on 16th Avenue South, near Jefferson Park. It is, as far as we know, Beacon Hill’s first Little Free Library, part of a movement to build small library structures in communities around the nation. Little Free Libraries are usually small boxes or cupboards mounted at streetside like mailboxes, and typically built and maintained by neighbors to promote literacy, community, and the enjoyment of reading.

Neighbor Levecke Mas told us, “I saw one of these Little Free Libraries last summer while walking around with my sister in Victoria. I have been wishing to do this ever since. My husband and I put this together this weekend using all materials found in our basement treasure trove!”

The Mas family library is charmingly built from what looks like a former kitchen cabinet, roofed with plexiglass, covered with a collection of foreign stamps, and opened with a vintage doorknob. Inside are two shelves of books, some bookmarks to borrow, a request list, and a guestbook for visitors to sign. Books are free to borrow.

The library is located on 16th, just north of South Spokane Street. Just west of Beacon Hill, there is also a Little Free Library on South Orcas Street in Georgetown, operated by a family with the wonderful name of “Bookwalter.”

The inside of the Little Free Library has a request sheet, bookmarks to borrow, a guestbook, and — oh yes — books! Photo by Levecke Mas.
Education

Van Asselt readers to compete for city championship

“The Van Asselt Bobcat Champions” from Van Asselt Elementary School on South Beacon Hill will compete in the city final of the 2012 Global Reading Challenge against students from Adams, Alki, Arbor Heights, Graham Hill, Greenwood, Loyal Heights, Northgate, Roxhill, and View Ridge elementary schools. The event is this coming Tuesday, March 27, at 7 p.m. in the Central Library Microsoft Auditorium, 1000 Fourth Ave., and it is free and open to all. Parking is available for $5 in the library’s garage.

The Challenge is a “Battle of the Books” for kids in grades 4 and 5. To compete, children read books from this list, and then participate in a “Quiz Bowl” game. Questions about the books are read to the teams and repeated once. Then the teams have 20 seconds to write down the correct answer. The winning Seattle team will take home the Global Reading Challenge traveling trophy and continue on to a videoconference challenge against students from Fraser Valley and Coquitlam in British Columbia, Canada.

The final against the Canadian teams will be held on Friday, April 13 at 10 a.m. at the John Stanford Center, 2445 Third Avenue South.

Local Events

Book Fair at St. George School this week

Photo by albertogp123 via Creative Commons.
Looking for books for the kids in your life? You may find them at the St. George School Scholastic Book Fair, open to the public through Thursday this week in the Parish Education Center, 1300 S. Dawson. The fair will be open through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. There will also be snacks, art activities, and kids’ story time. For more information, please contact the St. George School librarian, Liz Walsh-Boyd, at lizzie583@msn.com.

Education, Local Events

Add to your library at Cleveland book fair

Photo by Emily Carlin via Creative Commons.
This week you can add to your book collection at the Cleveland High School library, where they are having a book fair in conjunction with Secret Garden Bookstore on April 13-15. For every three books sold, Secret Garden will donate one book to the CHS library.

The sale is open to the community at any time during the open hours of 7 a.m.-3 p.m. daily (the fair is open until 5 p.m. on Friday). Cash, check, and credit cards are accepted.

Cleveland High School is located at 5511 15th Ave. S.

Beacon Bits

Beacon Bits: Catch-up edition

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Apologies to everyone. We are way behind on posts this week. Here’s a catch-up edition of Beacon Bits to fill you in on the latest.

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Notice the newspaper up in the windows of the old Beacon Pub? According to the Bar del Corso blog, they have started work on the building, where their pizzeria will be opening later this year.

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Just south of the former pub, another change is about to take place: ROCKiT space is moving. Betty Jean Williamson reports that ROCKiT will continue regular hours of operation at the current location, 3315 Beacon Avenue South, through January 31. After that, Open Mic moves to Kusina Filipina (3201 Beacon Avenue South) on Saturday, February 5. The event starts at 8:00 pm and costs $5. Tots Jam is moving to El Centro de la Raza room 310 (2524 16th Avenue South) on February 2 at 9:00 am. Classes are $7.

In the meantime, the ROCKiTeers have a lot of work ahead before vacating the building at 3315 Beacon and moving their activities into other locations. It sounds like they will need some volunteer help, including cleaning, repair, and moving. Contact Betty Jean at 206-658-0187 or bjwlmp@msn.com if you can help.

There will be a ROCKiT space moving sale on January 29 from 9:00 am – 6:00 pm. If you have loaned ROCKiT anything, please pick it up soon or let them know if you want to donate to the sale.

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Travis Mayfield at KOMO points out that Edwin Lee, the new mayor of San Francisco and the first Asian-American mayor of that city, was born on Beacon Hill!

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On the less-happy side of things, you may have heard that some very bad people were out and about last week, posing as Water Department workers to convince neighbors on Beacon Hill and in Columbia City to let them in their homes for a “water quality check,” but stealing their stuff instead. Here’s a Seattle Times (BHB news partners) report. The Seattle Police South Precinct Email Community Newsletter went out yesterday with their own take on the subject:

“For those of you who are ‘seasoned’ enough to remember the song ‘Let ’Em In’ by Paul McCartney & Wings from 1976 (I know, so last century), it should not be a surprise that we disagree with Sir Paul. Just because someone knocks or rings at the door does not mean that you let them in.”

The SPD reminds you that City employees will have laminated picture ID that includes a name, department, and serial number. If you see a suspicious person come to your house, and that person can’t produce a City of Seattle picture ID, call 911 to report the situation immediately.

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The Nova High School Book Night is coming on January 26. We are told it’s a “book fair/book exchange with books of all kinds, free for all!” Beacon Hill neighbor Levecke Mas is collecting books for the the book exchange; contact Levecke at leveckeinseattle@gmail.com. You can also drop off your book donations at the Nova office, in the Meany school building on East Capitol Hill (300 20th Avenue East).

The event is from 6:30-8:30 pm on Wednesday, January 26, and it is open to all.

Learn more about Nova and the Book Night at http://novaproject.my-pta.org.

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Rainier Valley Cooperative Preschool invites the community to learn about the school at an open house on Saturday, February 5, from 10:00 am to 11:00 am, and Thursday, February 10, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

The parent-run preschool is located in Beacon Hill Lutheran Church at 1720 South Forest Street. More info at their website.

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Cass Turnbull of Plant Amnesty doesn’t approve of Beacon Hill-style yard topiaries. Joel Lee begs to differ:

“I can certainly appreciate wanting to protect plants from senseless mutilation but Plant Amnesty seems to have nominated themselves the arbiters of taste with comments like ‘When the inherent beauty of a plant is compromised, it’s painful for those of us who know what it should look like.’ Who gave Plant Amnesty the authority to decide what plants should look like?”

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While it’s not Beacon Hill-specific, I can’t resist posting this link to a photo of former City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck with a man in a heron costume. Thank you, Seattle Municipal Archives.

Local Events, Meetings

Places to go, things to do: events and meetings coming up

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Photo of last year's International Children's Day festivities at El Centro, courtesy Elliott Jones.

There are a lot of events and meetings coming up soon that we want you to know about. Updated with late-arriving reminders of ROCKiTspace events and El Centro’s Cinco de Mayo celebration. Here goes:

Sunday, April 18:

Monday, April 19:

  • North Beacon Hill Planning meeting with Marshall Foster, city planning director from the Department of Planning and Development, 5:30 to 6:30 pm at the Beacon Hill Library, 2821 Beacon Avenue South.
  • Beacon Family Bike and Pedestrian Plan meeting, 6:30 to 8:00 pm at the Beacon Hill Library.

Saturday, April 24:

  • Beacon Idol round two, 7:00 pm at ROCKiTspace, 3315 Beacon Avenue South.
  • Seattle Public Schools Family and Community Engagement Symposium, 9:00 am to 3:30 pm at Aki Kurose Middle School, 3928 South Graham Street — free workshops on helping your child with math, science, reading, writing, dealing with bullying, and college and career readiness with keynote speaker Dr. Susan Enfield; breakfast (8:30 am), lunch, and childcare provided.

Wednesday, April 28:

  • International Children’s Day celebration, 5:00 to 8:00 pm at El Centro de la Raza, 2524 16th Avenue South, featuring children’s activities and cultural games, refreshments, and presentations; for more info contact Enrique Gonzalez at 206-957-4605 or email execasst@elcentrodelaraza.org.

Sunday, May 2:

Thursday, May 6:

Saturday, May 8:

  • Meet Laila Lalami, author of the 2010 Seattle Reads selection Secret Son, 4:00 to 5:30 pm at the Beacon Hill Library.

Thursday, May 13:

  • Cheasty Boulevard Plan meeting, 7:00 to 8:30 pm at the home of Amit Ranade and Jennifer Faubion-Ranade, 2615 South Edmunds Street.

Friday, May 14:

  • Neighborhood Plan Update meeting, Mercer Middle School. (We don’t have the starting time for this one yet, but we will post it when we do.)

Sunday, May 16:

  • Beacon Hill Music Backyard Party fundraiser, 3:00 to 7:00 pm — RSVP requested, email beaconhillmusic@gmail.com for more info.

Monday, May 17:

  • Beacon Family Bike and Pedestrian Plan meeting, 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Beacon Hill Library.

Saturday, May 22:

Wednesday, May 26:

  • Jefferson Park Skateboard Park, Beacon Mountain Playground, and Jefferson Playfield update with the Parks Department, 6:00 to 8:30 pm at the Jefferson Community Center, 3801 Beacon Avenue South.

Saturday, May 29:

Thursday, June 3:

Saturday, June 5:

Sunday, June 13:

Thursday, June 17:

  • Cheasty Boulevard Plan Open House with guided walks, 7:00 to 8:30 pm at the end of South Alaska Place.

Monday, June 21:

  • Beacon Family Bike and Pedestrian Plan meeting, 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Beacon Hill Library.

Saturday, July 17:

Big thanks to Frederica Merrell for assembling many of these meeting times and locations in a handout from the April NBHC meeting.

Local Events

Benefit concert and Bookfest coming soon

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Massive_ReliefLooking 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.)