Squaxin Artist Joe Seymour: “Nothing’s Permanent”

Above: Joe Seymour, Jr., Squaxin Island and Pueblo of Acoma, of Olympia, stands near the mural he and three other artists painted in 2012, commemorating the Canoe Journey to Squaxin Island. The mural in downtown Olympia was demolished this week to make room for a new, three story, mixed-used building. Seymour has been commissioned to create art for the new building.

Olympia Mural, Downtown Warehouse Building Demolished

Seymour to Work on New Art for The Laurana and Views on Fifth

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

Very little was salvaged.

Not the spectacular wooden trusses, not the metal window frames, not the beloved mural painted in commemoration of the 2012 Canoe Journey to Squaxin Island. 

The mural was created by Coast Salish artist Joseph Seymour, Jr., Squaxin Island and Pueblo of Acoma, Ira Coyne, Vince Ryland, and Kevin Bouton-Scott.

In front of a handful of witnesses, the mural in downtown Olympia was demolished on Tuesday. 

It was a brutal sight as the contractors’ machine took efficient bites out of the concrete upon which the Pacific Northwest sun, Olympic Mountain range, Salish Sea, indigenous canoes, paddlers, and a welcoming pole were featured.

In short order, the brightly colored mural with so much personality was gone.

Above: Artist Joe Seymour Jr. stands in front of the mural he helped create in commemoration of the 2012 Canoe Journey to Squaxin Island. 

Above: Passersby witnessed the mural’s destruction on Tuesday.

Built in 1941, the warehouse building adjacent to Percival Landing on State and Columbia Street was most recently home to Les Schwab Tires. In cooperation with the store’s management, the mural was painted on its outer, west facing wall.

After Les Schwab Tires moved to its new location on Plum Street, Walker John and one of his companies, Urban Olympia V LLC, bought the building. The project is represented by Thomas Architecture Studios.

In the past couple of weeks, the building’s demolition was accomplished to make room for a new, three story building with a restaurant and 44 market rate housing units: 10 studios, 28 1-bedroom, and six two-bedroom units.

The new development will be called The Laurana, after Laurana Ware Percival, the wife of Captain Samuel Wing Percival, who constructed the Percival Dock and Lumber Companies.

Construction is slated to begin in August with occupancy in late summer or fall of 2019.

Interview with Artist Joe Seymour

Little Hollywood contacted Seymour and met with him last weekend on Percival Landing. We talked about the Canoe Journey mural, his art, and future projects.

The conversation was bittersweet, and jumped between the emotions of past, present, and future.

The name Joe Seymour does not appear on the marker near the mural. What does appear is Seymour’s Squaxin Island ancestral name, Wahalatsu?. His family gave him the name of his Squaxin Island great grandfather, Wahalatsu?, William Bagley, in 2003. 

Seymour said his ancestors inspire him to create his art. 

Downtown Olympia sits on land ceded by the Medicine Creek Treaty tribes which include the Squaxin Island Tribe, Nisqually Tribe of Indians and the Puyallup Tribe of Indians.

A heavy trading area for different people, the waters and lands upon which we stood are the traditional territory of the Steh-Chass people, people of the Squaxin Island Tribe. 

Prior to the Carylon fill of 1911, the area between Percival dock and Columbia Street was the water’s edge. Piers were initially used to extend Water Street north of State, called 3rd Street at the time, to provide buildable area for more industrial activity.

Seymour had just come from Thomas Architecture Studios and held in his hand rolled up building drawings. 

He was excited to see the drawings because the building’s owner, Walker John, has commissioned him and local artist Ira Coyne to create two new pieces of artwork for the new building.

We opened the rolls.

The building will feature a plaza facing west, toward the water, and have a raised sill height of 16.5 feet which is six feet above the elevation required for sea level rise. Deployable Kevlar skirts will be used at building entrances.

The building’s west façade will be set back from the existing one by approximately 65 feet. The city requires a 30 foot setback from the shoreline and Laurana’s west façade is over 100 feet from the shoreline.

But Seymour was most interested in the wall space he and Coyne will have to work with to create their artwork.

“We’re not going to recreate this mural but do something that honors the Canoe Journey. We’re going to look at pictures of the actual landing that day and see what we find. We have two walls: one, facing west, toward the water, will be 15 feet high and 50 feet wide. The other, facing northeast on Columbia Street, will be about 30 feet wide and as high as 30 feet. Both Ira and I are really grateful that the developer is working with us.”

“Nothing is permanent,” Seymour added, looking at the mural wistfully.

His perspective comes not only from his indigenous heritage, but his upbringing. 

Seymour, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, grew up in New Mexico and California. His dad was in the Marine Corps. He now lives in Olympia’s eastside neighborhood.  

A geoduck harvester and commercial diver, Seymour works with several artistic mediums, including wood, wool, etched glass, paint, and photography.

He started his artistic career by carving his first paddle for the 2003 Tribal Journey to Tulalip. Then he carved his first bentwood box. Then he learned how to stretch and make drums.

In 2005, after attending a life-changing artist-in-residency program at the Longhouse at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Seymour knew he wanted to devote his life to his art.

He has been a participating artist in several art shows facilitated through the Longhouse and the Washington State History Museum. The recipient of numerous grants, he has participated in several international gatherings of indigenous artists.

Seymour’s work can be seen at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, the Squaxin Island Museum in Shelton, and the Hilo Art Museum in Hilo, Hawai’i.

The Canoe Journey Mural

Tribal Journeys began in 1989, intending to coincide with the centennial celebration for Washington State. Since 1993, ‘Tribal Journeys’ or ‘The Paddle’ have been held on an annual basis, with various tribes serving as the host tribe.

Seymour discussed the creation  of the mural to commemorate the 2012 Canoe Journey.

“The project was commissioned by the Olympia Downtown Association. Ira and I submitted our designs and they were both really similar. We both had seven canoes on the water and we both had big sky, so they asked, ‘Do you want to work together?’

“My first thought was, ‘I don’t want to work with anybody,’ Seymour laughed. “But then I saw the Rebecca Howard mural (painted by Coyne) and I was like, ‘Holy shit, I wanna work with this guy.’

“A lot of my friends already knew Ira and they said, ‘Yea, work with this guy.’ So, we got together, looked at our designs and within five minutes, said, ‘Yea, let’s work together.’  So, it was serendipitous. They gave us $3,000 and Benjamin Moore donated the paint.”’

Seymour was asked how he found out about the sale of the building and that the mural wouldn’t be saved.

“We never really thought Les Schwab would move. We thought it would be here for, like, 20 to 25 years. Most downtown buildings stay where they are, but not anymore. I found out that the building was being sold when Ira called me about it. It turns out the developer was reaching out to the Squaxin Island Tribal Council, trying to figure out what to do. They called me about it and asked what would be the ideal. I said the ideal would be to preserve the whole wall or move it to the Tribe. But economically, that wasn’t feasible. I thought it could fall under historic preservation, but no….”

Pointing to one canoe named DZU-NIG-WUN-GIS, Seymour explained that the canoes featured are actual ones on the Journey.

“That is Chief Frank Nelson’s canoe, from Alert Bay, on Vancouver Island. He was one of the driving forces for the renewal of the Canoe Society. That’s one piece of wood. It’s heavy! He's passed on now,” said Seymour.

Pointing to a smaller canoe, Seymour said it was a traditional Squaxin dugout canoe.

Above: A close up of a traditional Squaxin dugout canoe.

Seymour said he painted the sun by freehand, using a yardstick and a couple of pencils to make a big compass.

He credited Kevin Boutin-Scott for painting the welcome pole. “It turned out amazing,” he said.

Future Plans for Views on Fifth

Seymour just graduated from The Evergreen State College and hopes Evergreen will receive the financing needed to begin a Masters in Fine Arts program so he can move forward with his education and later teach. For now, he is happy to create art.

He credits his faculty members, printmaker Lisa Sweet, and Alex Swiftwater McCartey, Makah, and their program, Studio Projects, for his exploration of printmaking with a Northwest Native art element.

“When working in the print studio, you’re working with Baltic birch for your blocks and because I have a carving background, that really came in handy,” he said.

The course explored dominant European-U.S. concepts and assumptions of art as well as the art of indigenous and ancient cultures, created to serve ritual and ceremony or to galvanize communities. Alternative forms and functions of art serve to act as change agents, questioning the status quo.

Above: The nine-story Views on Fifth under construction in downtown Olympia as seen from Rotary Park on West Bay Drive.

Turning south, Seymour looked toward the nine-story building under reconstruction as Views on Fifth and remarked that he is excited to be working with the building’s owner, Ken Brogan, to create massive Coast Salish art.

He envisions decorating the concrete towers with several salmon made of steel and welcoming poles made of wood.

Discussing the tortured history of the building and current efforts to stop its construction, Seymour says he thinks the new building will be beautiful.

“I don’t want to reveal too much, but I want to take the image of the welcoming pole figure from the mural and turn it into a 3-D sculpture. So, even though the mural is coming down, it will be recreated in a different form and then, maybe, in this new project, we can have something that celebrates regeneration and ties in with the Canoe Journey. I’m working with a carver who wants to teach me how to do it,” he said. 

The artwork, like the City of Olympia, will be created in stages.

Above: The mural is a featured landmark in the GPS game, Pokemon. Noses to their smartphones, several participants gathered at the mural for an impending raid. All in good fun, the game is played like Capture the Flag. One participant, Aryah Esposito, 20, of Olympia, wore a 2013 Paddle to Quinault t-shirt.

No Pile Driving During Lakefair for Mistake on the Lake

Above: Views on Fifth, better known as the Mistake on the Lake, as seen on Monday from a newly created city owned park on the isthmus on Fourth Avenue in downtown Olympia. Piling driving at the site will begin on a three story building on the corner of Fourth and Simmons Street. The poetry on the sidewalk is the creation of Olympia poet laureate, Amy Solomon-Minarchi, and others as part of the city’s Art in Public Places Program. 

No pile driving planned during Lakefair, July 11 - 15

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

Oh, the sweet sound of progress! 

Pile driving sounds like poetry to some ears, but to others, not so much. But pretty soon, there will be plenty of it in downtown Olympia.

Construction will begin on a new, three story building with apartments and structured parking for residents, all part of the conversion of the existing nine story building best known as the Mistake on the Lake at 410 5th Avenue, also known as Views on Fifth.

Piling driving will not occur during Lakefair, however, and less noisy construction activity on both buildings will continue, City of Olympia building official Todd Cunningham told Little Hollywood on Monday.

The 61st annual Lakefair, a community celebration in downtown Olympia on Water Street and Heritage Park, begins Wednesday and ends on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of South Sounders come into downtown Olympia each year to enjoy food, carnival rides, live entertainment, a car show, a parade, and, as the grand finale, a fireworks display. All activities are operated by Capital Lakefair, a nonprofit volunteer organization. For a list of events and activities, go to www.lakefair.org.

“There may also be occasional traffic disruptions as construction equipment stages for off-loading onto the site. The contractor will have appropriate staff on site to monitor and address all construction activity and any concerns related to public safety,” said Cunningham.

In time, two, new three story buildings are expected to be built on site.

“The pile driving is for the new buildings. There may be some additional piles for the existing (building) but that is not the majority of the piles at this time. The owner was very cooperative about this when I asked him about Lakefair and immediately volunteered that he would discontinue pile driving as it would be the right thing to do for the community during this event. He did mention that this is at substantial cost though,” said Cunningham.

Pile driving work will take place between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

Above: Pile driving equipment being staged on Monday for the construction of a three story building on Fourth Avenue near Views on Fifth, a nine-story building under redevelopment in downtown Olympia.

Public Art Installed on WSECU Parking Garage

Above: Workers install public artwork on the Washington State Employees Credit Union parking garage on 10th and Jefferson in downtown Olympia this week. The work is by internationally known artist Christian Moeller.

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

What are they? Bottle caps? Marshmallows? 

And what is that design? Hubcaps? Film reels? For some, it’s hard to tell. But back up and look at it from another angle, and you may see something different.

Whatever you see, the parking garage owned by the Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU) in downtown Olympia has received an artistic makeover.

Located across the street from the Olympia post office on 10th and Jefferson, the six story building has been “naked” for several years.

Tempered glass panels which originally surrounded the brick building to better obscure the sight of vehicles in the garage were removed after one spontaneously exploded on a hot day in August, 2013. For safety reasons, all the panels were removed.

After an investigation, it was determined that there were impurities in the glass making process.

Staff admitted in a 2013 Little Hollywood story that the garage was pretty ugly without the panels, and the city expected the credit union to get the building back to a state of being more visually appealing.

At long last, after a public process involving credit union members, staff, and neighbors, international artist Christian Moeller was chosen as the finalist to create the new exterior design.

Moeller is a professor and department chair of Design Media Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles.

According to his biography, Moeller is an artist “working with contemporary media technologies to produce innovative and intense physical events, realized from handheld objects to architectural scale installations. Over the past two decades, his body of work represented one of the original and most complex investigations of what is possible to be revealed by the intersections of cinema, computation, music and physical space.”

Above: Looking northeast, the Washington State Employee Credit Union (WSECU) parking garage as seen from the roof of the WSECU building on Union Avenue in downtown Olympia. The artwork by Christian Moeller is titled, “Buttons.”

The artwork is 42 feet tall and covers the WSECU parking structure over a surface of approximately 24,000 square feet. The “canvas” of the artwork is made of galvanized chain-link fence and mounted with the help of vertical tension cables in 12’ wide panels.

A total of 235,000 white “pixels” or disks made of injection-molded vinyl are attached to the fence. Their contrast with the darker background of holes not filled by a disk form large images.

The artwork came in large, numbered panels in rolls wrapped in plastic. Workers were seen this week mounting the rolls from the top of the garage and securing them in place.

Moeller explored and mulled over a variety of thematic concepts around the credit union’s values of community, family, and connections, explained Ann Flannigan, vice president of public relations for the Washington State Employees Credit Union. 

Flannigan provided Little Hollywood a tour of the facility on Wednesday.

“His work, titled “Buttons,” is inspired by the idea of a grandmother’s old button box, a treasure chest of disks, all with different patterns and shapes. 

“Buttons evoke connectivity, fastening, holding, and the joining of two pieces of fabric. For us, that fabric is community....I’m hopeful it will be an iconic part of the Olympia landscape. Even though it’s our garage, it belongs to the community. We wanted to make it interesting to look at and enjoy,” said Flannigan.

Above: A close up of the artwork titled, “Buttons,” by Christian Moeller at the Washington State Employees Credit Union parking garage in downtown Olympia.

Editor’s Note, May 3: Asked to clarify the information gap between the 2013 Little Hollywood story that described a different proposed art design, Ann Flannigan, vice president of public relations for WSECU, responded:  

“Our Board of Directors considered several approaches for recladding the garage during the past few years.  The “art panels” concept was going to be married with replacement tempered glass panels. Ultimately, the Board asked for additional options from our developer for their consideration, and we were presented with Moeller’s approach, which they ultimately endorsed.

“Then new artwork didn’t go through a full design review process because city staff were of the opinion that it was substantially similar to the original design intent, which was our mandate.  WSECU received approval for this latest concept when presented to the city in 2016.” 

Also, artist Christian Moeller is a professor and department chair of Design Media Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles, not Berkeley, as originally reported. 

Little Hollywood appreciates the clarifications.

For more information about the design review process and building history, Little Hollywood wrote a story, “WSECU Proposes Garage Art Wall Installation,” on December 13, 2013, at http://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com/2013/12/wsecu-proposes-garage-art-wall.html

Juliana v. U.S. Youth Addresses Climate Convention

Above: Aji Piper, 17, spoke at the South Sound Climate Action Convention held in Lacey on Saturday. Piper is one of 21 youth suing the United States government in a landmark federal climate lawsuit, Juliana v. United States.

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

“What are you going to do? You should know or at least figure it out. What are you going to do now to protect future generations?” Aji Piper, 17, Seattle, asked the audience.

As the keynote speaker at the day-long South Sound Climate Action Convention held in Lacey on Saturday, Piper posed the question to over 200 participants, including local officials and state legislators, but he wasn’t waiting around for an answer.

Piper is one of 21 youth suing the United States government in a landmark federal climate change related lawsuit, Juliana v. United States.

Following multiple rulings issued in favor of the youth plaintiffs and the organization supporting them, Our Children’s Trust, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon earlier this week set October 29 as the first day of the trial. 

The trial will be held in Eugene and is being billed as the “trial of the century.”

Piper learned about climate change, ocean acidification, wildfires, deadly public health outbreaks and coal trains when he moved from Port Orchard, Washington to Seattle.

He wanted to do something about it all so he started planting trees and getting active in local protests. He co-founded Future Voters for 350 ppm.

“I should be able to be a kid…I needed to feel a stronger impact from my actions. I needed a solid course of action...so, I took them to court,” he said, as he explained his journey as a young climate activist.

In 2011, Piper was also a plaintiff in another youth-driven lawsuit demanding that the Washington State Department of Ecology update its emission regulations based on the latest climate science, saying the agency was required to do so through the Public Trust Doctrine, which says the government has a duty to protect natural resources for future generations.

Technically, he is the future, and while a strong ruling favored his case, nothing has happened to enforce it and the case has been refiled.

The difference between the state and federal cases, he said, is that the federal government has known about the dangers of fossil fuel use and the destructive forces of climate change for about fifty years.

“By acting against that information, they have violated our rights and the Public Trust Doctrine.”

According to a press release from Our Children’s Trust, Juliana v. United States is not about the government’s failure to act on climate. Instead, the 21 young plaintiffs assert that the U.S. government, through its affirmative actions in creating a national energy system that causes climate change, has violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, and has failed to protect essential public trust resources.

The case is one of many related legal actions brought by youth seeking science-based action by governments to stabilize the climate system.

Above: Averi Azar, a student in the Masters of Environmental Science program at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, staffs a table about the program during the South Sound Climate Action Convention. She is pursuing her masters thesis about sea star wasting disease.

Engaging Youth in Climate Change Conversations

The South Sound Climate Action Convention was held at the Lacey branch of South Puget Sound Community College and was organized by the Thurston Climate Action Team.

It featured a wide variety of speakers and presenters who geared their talks and workshops around climate change issues such as youth engagement, food sustainability, waste reduction, renewable energy technologies and options, carbon pricing initiatives and other legislative issues.

Aji Piper co-facilitated a morning workshop on how to engage youth in climate change conversations and related what actions and strategies work for him.

“Don’t make it boring, youth don’t want to sit in meetings…we sit enough at school. I didn’t get involved in climate change to stand outside of official buildings and shout....While those are tried and true approaches, and not to discredit those, but we’ve been doing those for years.”

Piper related a 2009 campaign he liked which encouraged the Royal Bank of Canada to divest from the Alberta tar sands projects. The strategy of banners and bumper sticker messages with the one ultimately unfurled on the side of the bank that said, “Please help us Mrs. Nixon.com,” created buzz.

His comment encouraged workshop participants to generate a range of actions and ideas that included die-ins, music, the creative arts, light projections on buildings, and the creation of large puppetry.

Olympia musician Holly Gwinn Graham strongly encouraged early childhood arts education in the school system.

“They are ready to be involved, to hear the truth. They’re ready to be creative and be part of something beautiful. It teaches kids to be politically active and use different forms of expression, encourages conversation, communication and intergenerational and non-familial connections with people,” she said.

Piper acknowledged that there is room for all kinds of artistic expression. 

“I grew up playing outside in the forest with my little brother and there's a difference...it's why I don’t do social media....I sing a lot. I get a song stuck in my head and start humming it, or my brother does. Singing and performing is different than speaking, just like poetry is different than an essay,” he said.

Above: Aji Piper received a standing ovation for his keynote speech addressing his involvement with climate change issues at the South Sound Climate Action Convention in Lacey on Saturday.

For more information about the South Sound Climate Action Convention and a list of participating organizations, go to southsoundclimateconvention.org

To learn more about the Thurston Climate Action Team, go to https:/janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com/2018/02/carbon-free-thurston-efforts-underway.html

Olympia’s First Poet Laureate: Amy Solomon-Minarchi

Above: Amy Leah Solomon-Minarchi was selected to be Olympia's first poet laureate. About the position, Solomon-Minarchi says, “It’s not about me - it’s about uniting people in Olympia. I can do this because I care about Olympia and people’s stories….” 

In an interview with Little Hollywood, Solomon-Minarchi explores her role, youth and military life voices, current events, and the culture of Olympia

By Janine Gates

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

The City of Olympia now has its first poet laureate, Amy Leah Solomon-Minarchi.

Based upon the recommendation of a city arts selection committee, the Olympia city council appointed Solomon-Minarchi to the new position on Tuesday. 

Solomon-Minarchi sat down with Little Hollywood on Friday to speak about the position, and share her thoughts about the meaning and purpose of poetry, youth and other voices that are not often heard, and the changing culture of Olympia. 

Even in an interview, Solomon-Minarchi’s words are eloquent, well-chosen, and quietly spoken, capturing powerful images. 

Solomon-Minarchi, an English, creative writing, and philosophy teacher for 11th and 12th graders at North Thurston High School, is also the advisor for the school’s “Write Club,” and advisor and publisher of the school’s literary magazine, “The Art of Words.”

She is also a choreographer at the school, designing and implementing dances with students for the school musical and Spring Arts Showcase productions. 

A member and student of the Richard Hugo House in Seattle, Solomon-Minarchi received her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University, and received her master’s in teaching degree from The Evergreen State College in 2010. She has won many honors and awards.

Solomon-Minarchi grew up in New Jersey and has lived in Olympia for eight years. She is expected to fulfill her duties for two years and will receive a $1,000 stipend per year.

“Olympia’s diverse populations are at a serious crossroads in which no one dare cross the road. Let poetry be the place where we enter the crosswalk,” Solomon-Minarchi said in her application. 

She proposed a program called, “I Hear Olympia Singing,” in which she says she will build community through poetry, offering literary arts workshops with the schools that have the least resources and highest need for art programs and enrichment.

She also envisions writing contests and readings with outreach to Community Youth Services and Olympians at large to elevate perception and engagement in the growing downtown arts core. 

Her Writing the City program would hold open calls for short poems, a semi-annual public art display, and a monthly walking tour and writing series that will take students to rotating spaces around the city to practice capturing sensory imagery and sound.

Ultimately, at the end of her term, Solomon-Minarchi says she would work toward editing an anthology of poems that captures Olympia “in all its burgeoning flux that will celebrate the local and rich working history of Olympia and the new, five-story culture of artist lofts, convention centers and Seattle transplants buying property in cash, who look with wide wonder at the eclectic promise of growing roots here.”

Solomon-Minarchi was chosen out of 10 applicants by a committee of five individuals who met for one and a half hours to discuss the applications. Little Hollywood was at the October 27 meeting to observe the selection process.

When they arrived at their decision, they said Solomon-Minarchi, “….has an energy that sets her apart from the others…she’s youth focused and very approachable and accessible. Her poetry is so place-based….She’s someone who will grow the (poet laureate) program and engage us….good presence….Her Writing the City program is so cool….”

The suggestion to have a city poet laureate arose out of a committee referral in 2015 and proceeded through the city’s arts advisory committee to promote poetry as an art form and contribute to a sense of place. 

Stephanie Johnson, city parks, arts and recreation program staff, facilitated the nomination selection and recommendation process. Applicants were referred to by number, not name, while they watched submitted video presentations and evaluated application strengths and weaknesses. The applicants were winnowed down to Solomon-Minarchi and her alternate, Cecily Markham.

Johnson and the committee looked at the selection process paved by other cities such as Tacoma, Fresno, and Reno. Outreach was done through the city website, the city’s Arts Digest email list, the Olympia Poetry Network, and the Old Growth Poetry Network. 

Solomon-Minarchi’s poem, Suburban Danger, was one of the poems she submitted to the arts committee for consideration.

It was inspired, she said, by a brief brush with a speeding car while walking a baby and big dog through the crosswalk at 7th Avenue SE and Boundary, in Olympia’s eastside neighborhood.

Suburban Danger

Cars speed past pedestrians in crosswalks

while babies stain Snugglies, dogs strain leashes

drivers yell, 900 points, and mean it.

Mount Rainier so majestic, could we climb it if

the tsunami hits? Better yet seek the water tower

pack the power bars, guzzle Powerade

and wait to be saved. Or if it erupts

could we outrun the lava flow in our

Prius? Would we run out of gas mid-flee?

If only my mother were here. We could

be generations until the white waves

Wash us out to sea, or the red hand claims us.

Above: Chum salmon make their journey back to spawn last week at McLane Creek Nature Trail in Olympia. Stream Team salmon stewards explained how baby salmon “imprint” on the water in their home stream. When they migrate back from their stay in the ocean, biologists believe they recognize the smell of McLane Creek by its distinctive smell.

Solomon-Minarchi was asked what she feels South Sound youth need to express, and what poetry might mean to them.

“Young people have a lot to share. They have a treasure trove of stories to tell. Poetry is an efficient way to get out their emotions. Students are working on how their voices have meaning, because, as they are growing and developing, at 16 - 17, this is the time they are playing with their voice. They are saying, ‘What does this mean?’ And once they graduate, they are just like little fish in a huge ocean. 

“What poetry might mean to them is finding a way to look around themselves, ground themselves, and face the emotions they are feeling and chronicle the new experiences they are having, whether it is college, a job, relationships…it’s all funny, strange, and new.

“They are also figuring out when to tell their stories, what’s relevant, and how much to share. You know, you’ve got students that just want to tell you every little thing, and others hold it all in and lock it up in a box. 

“The role of poetry, or a teacher of writing, is to give them space to be able to sort out those emotions together. They are in a community. They are not alone. Storytelling is powerful and the cultures that last have stories to tell, pass on, and are meaningful. Then there’s the question of how to tell the story. There’s not just one way….”

Asked what local or national poetry she appreciates, Solomon-Minarchi mentioned the art of Elizabeth Austen, a recent Washington State Poet Laureate, who wrote the chapbook, Every Dress a Decision, a finalist for the 2012 Washington State Book Award in poetry. 

She also mentioned the poetry of Brian Turner, a noncommissioned officer in the Iraq War.

Solomon-Minarchi says she will capture the voices of veterans, not because she is one, but because her husband is, and she wants to honor them with an open heart.

“For those who care for veterans, it’s not an easy job – there’s heartache, longing, uncertainty. I’d like to provide a counterpoint voice to say, ‘Hey, this is what it was like back home….”’

There’s also a place for Walt Whitman. “When I ask students to read his poetry, I get groans,” she laughed. “They ask, ‘How do I relate to him?’” Solomon-Minarchi says that is a valid response.

“I know that my love of poetry comes from the generative process of writing, and writing together with people, being able to see the same thing – going to Percival Landing and looking out onto the Sound. 

“My poem might be very, very different from the person sitting next to me, and yet we both share that experience and that brings us together. Part of what I want to do is have open-mic at the Olympia Farmer’s Market. It takes courage to say it in front of others and celebrate our voice in the moment.”

Briefly touching upon the city’s current events, Solomon-Minarchi said she was watching Tuesday evening’s city council meeting from home, and heard Olympia Police Chief Ronnie Roberts’ comments about the Port of Olympia and the recent rail blockade of a Union Pacific train by protesters in downtown Olympia.

“Being in this position right now will be very interesting. We have stories, but we are also making stories together. There is fear in the unknown, and what kind of direction Olympia is going to go in….We see the tall buildings going up and we’re missing our small town….

“The culture will change, and there’s a lot of emotion about that, whether it’s anxiety about how that will play out, and whether we’ll be able to keep the things that make us different, like being able to go down to the railroad track at 4:00 a.m. and say, ‘This is not ok.’ This is real. Over the next two years, we want, through poetry, to capture the identity of Olympia, the changing of Olympia, and what brings us together.”

Above: Children and parent volunteers from Roosevelt Elementary School observe the salmon run at McLane Creek Nature Trail last Thursday afternoon in Olympia. A group of older children from North Thurston High School were also on the trail, and were being encouraged by a teacher to “....zoom out and sketch the greater ecosystem....”