Items

• 
  2022-06-04

  After coming out during the pandemic, many LGBTQ+ folks look to 2022’s Pride with a mix of emotions

  This is a news story from The Seattle Times by Scott Greenstone. Pride has changed quite a bit over the last two years due to COVID. For a while, Pride celebrations were held virtually. The in-person events in 2022 will now resemble what Pride was like prior to the virus. Included in this article are personal stories of people who did not come out until the pandemic, with this year being the first year they will attend Pride in-person. For some, they didn't realize they were trans until the pandemic hit. Rhys Hutton, for instance, did not know he was trans, and is also coming to grips with having autism. Hutton's story of how he came to the realization started on TikTok when the algorithm kept showing videos of trans-masculine people. This exposure helped him figure out his identity more. Stories like this are not uncommon, according to a recent Gallup poll, ten percent of Millennials and twenty percent of Gen Z identify as LGBTQ+.
• 
  2022-05-04

  Erika Groudle Oral History, 2022/05/04

  Erika Groudle is a resident of Monroe, Washington. She lives in a tiny house with her partner on her mother’s property. In this oral history interview Erika discusses working with kids during the pandemic and her opinion on how they handle mask wearing. Additionally, Erika discusses her “pandemic garden,” caring for her grandfather, staying connected to friends and family during the pandemic, how she first realized the pandemic was close to home, and the realities of living in a state that not only had the first case and death of COVID-19 in the United States of America, but also highly publicized protests in Seattle. Interviewer: Jason Inskeep Interviewee: Erika Groudle
• 
  2022-01-13

  A Day of Travelling

  I created this handwritten story that I wrote in the airport and never thought that I would share it with someone
• 
  2020-08-29

  Socially distanced and socially safe summer camp

  The attached article is something that is probably not well known. In Seattle, Washington there is the Pacific Science Museum, a fun educational museum for all ages, but focused on kids. Every summer they run educational camps for K-8 graders. It was unclear if after months of distance learning (early pandemic, 2020) students would be physically or emotionally ready to do a group activity in person. PacSci’s camps were able to run while students were socially distanced and masked. This matters because there has been a lot of rhetoric about kids not being able to wear masks for a variety of reasons, but this article proves that kids were able to understand social distancing and mask-wearing so they could have a safe and fun thing to do. With these practices in place, combined with low group sizes, and the use of a lot of outdoor time, they didn’t have any transmission cases for the whole summer. Not included in the article but they had the same success the next summer, 2021, and are on track to continue again the summer of 2022. The significance is not just to a collection focused on children, but also to the service industry since this is a less formal education setting that leans more toward front-facing customer service.
• 
  2021-01-28

  Freezer Failure

  January 28, 2021, around 11 PM one of my friends called me, we normally don’t talk on the phone so I assumed something was wrong. I could tell that she was driving and her voice was shaky. She told me that a freezer had failed at her mom’s work and that around 1,300 vaccines would be expired by 5 or 6 AM. She was told to try to get anyone she knew to get to the hospital in order to reduce the chance of wasting such a hard to get thing. This was prior to my state lifting restrictions on who was eligible for the vaccine yet. Not everyone could get it, just certain people due to age, pre-existing conditions, and career. The clinic did a good job at still trying to make sure that people who were eligible got to the front of the line, but they knew that they needed to make sure every vaccine was used. My girlfriend and I would not have made it there in time since we were over 3 hours away, but her family all lived within a 30-minute drive. We started calling her parents and brothers to wake them up and get moving. Her mother, oldest brother, and soon to be sister-in-law were all teachers and were going to have to start teaching in person again. None of them would have been eligible until a month or more after going back in person, and they were all decently nervous about being in person unvaccinated. Her family got lucky and was able to get vaccinated that night. I cannot thank my friend enough for calling me to keep the people who have become my family safe.
• 
  2021-10-03

  The First Game Back and the Last Game of the Season

  This was a photo from my seat at my first mariners game back since the beginning of Covid and the last game of a great season. IT was an emotional game because they lost their wildcard spot, it was probably Kyle Seager's last game as a mariner after 10 years, and it was my first time in the ballpark since 2019. It feels like we are getting back to normal even though I am still hesitant to jumping back in.
• 
  2021-03-08T12:38

  Danny Denial Oral History, 2021/03/08

  Self-description: “Audio visual artist that lives in Seattle, Washington, specifically in the realm of music and film, and also the intersection of the two. A lot of my work involves amplifying experiences and voices that are often underrepresented, primarily in the Black and LBGTQ+ community. And that’s something that overtime my work has been diving deeper and deeper into over the years, which is something that I think as an artist, I’ve only really come to terms with in the last few years. But it’s been definitely both empowering for me and illuminating to see it reflected back in the ways that people have responded to the work.” Other biographical details: late 20s, from Los Angeles. Some of the things we discussed include: The dysphoric experience of Black artists filtered through white talking points. Unstable work and income as an artist--audio and visual--pre- and mid-pandemic. 2019 was the first year that work as an artist and in performance communities was stable. Releasing the album Fuck Danny Denial in 2020 (https://dannydenial.bandcamp.com/album/fuck-danny-denial). Pandemic specific economic penalties of musicians in the case of live streams for Seattle Pride and Folsom Street Fair. The burden on artists to make ethical calls about canceling performances in the early stages of the pandemic, and needing to wear “new hats”, like health safety inspector. The pandemic as a shared experience of stoppage, and the need for adaptation. Aging and changing awareness about one’s needs for health care. Working to build equitable opportunities for artists. Since 2015-2019 doing gigs and video projects on contracts. Media outlets’ poor representations of the summer protests, acts of civil disobedience, and the autonomous zone in Seattle. Funding the serial project Bazooka (http://web.archive.org/web/20210622155802/https://ca.gofundme.com/f/dannydenialbazzooka) The ethical decisions associated with wanting to participate in amplifying and uplifting the BLM movement without exploitation for personal gain, engaging as a citizen. Witnessing a friend’s experience of hospitalization due to COVID-19. The value in studying patterns of human friendships and how the pandemic disrupted the conditioning of existence and the importance of local histories of resistance in Seattle. Cultural references: Pan’s Labyrinth, Smash Mouth’s super spreader event, Portland International Film Festival, The Tape Deck Podcast, Punk Black, Darksmith, Taco Cat, Alice and Chains, Duff McKagan, Pearl Jam, MoPOP, Shaina Shepherd, and TheBlackTones.
• 
  2021-03-29

  Street art during the pandemic

  Malcolm Dole is a Seattle photographer who is capturing photographs of street art during the pandemic.
• 
  2021-04-02

  Malcolm Dole captures street art in Seattle, Washington

  Malcolm Dole captures street art in Seattle, Washington. This piece shows a masked face perhaps layered over other art or perhaps an intentional effect.
• 
  2021

  We Stand In Solidarity With Our Asian Family

  #streetart #seattlestreetart #pandemicstreetart #streetartsculpture #graffiti #gorillaart #seattlepandemicstyle #pandemicstreetartofseattle #graffiti #graffitiporn
• 
  2020-07-23

  Photos from March for Summer Taylor

  Summer Taylor was 24 years old and lived in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. They died in the early hours of July 4th after marching and dancing with the nightly Black Femme March for Black Lives Matter. As it had for weeks, the protest entered the freeway and brought traffic to a stop. A driver in a white car sped toward the crowd, running into Summer and another activist, Diaz Love. Summer should be remembered as a hero who put their life on the line to make a difference, to stand with BLM, show solidarity with their community, and to disrupt an unjust system.⁣ ⁣ When Summer's mother, Dalia, was asked about being concerned about children's safety attending protests, she responded, "I knew no matter how much I might want to ask them to stay safe during protests they would just say mom, if you are Black in this country it isn't even safe to be alive, and they were right."⁣ ⁣ Photos from March for Summer Taylor, July 9, 2020
• 
  11/19/2020

  David McKenney Oral History, 2020/11/19

  David John McKenney lived in rural Michigan for most of his life. In this interview, David reflects upon the challenges that COVID-19 wrought on the rural school districts for which he works. He describes how he and his coworkers wrote code that helped transition students to remote learning and saved other districts countless hours of labor. David also touches upon his experience in Ukraine and the flu quarantine that occurred there seasonally. He contrasts this with the current American quarantine and highlights his concerns about freedoms of speech in reference to lockdowns. His concerns about freedoms of speech also extends to the future of Christianity and the church. He expresses his anger about the 2020 election season. In addition, David discusses his frustration with rioting in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. David remarks on the shift in real estate from urban areas to suburban areas and the rise in construction. Finally, David comments on his participation in pandemic trends (such as baking bread) and increased time spent with family.
• 
  2020-02-27

  School Emails regarding COVID-19

  Some emails sent by my school to students and family as the COVID-19 situations developed. I selected these emails because it shows the lack of information there was about COVID during the beginning. Shows a situation a lot of people experienced. I think first hand sources are great and I hope in the future people will look back and see first hand emails. It will help a lot of people in the future place themselves in our shoes.
• 
  2020-10-12

  Indigenous People's Day Gathering

  This is a photograph of various indigenous peoples, from tribes in the Pacific NorthWest, gathering in downtown Seattle to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day and commemorate missing and murdered indigenous people.
• 
  2020-11-06

  My Part for Social Justice

  The photograph is from Presidential election results won't stop Seattle BLM protests by David Kroman for Crosscut and was taken by Jovelle Tamayo of Crosscut during a Black Lives Matter protest on election night, 3 November 2020, in Seattle, WA. The article states no matter who wins the presidential election Social Justice protests will not stop. My experience throughout this year during the pandemic and Social Justice movements has been silent. Maybe I feel that my voice will not be heard but I do fear that if I do not say something, I’m hurting the movement for Social Justice. Social Justice movements will continue whatever the election results may be and inequality surrounding diversity will still exist too. Black Lives Matter has continued to spread its resolve for Social Justice, and I know my silence will not continue. Social Justice occurs and is a presence in our society today. It is up to the individual to make their decision to say something, but it will be present until changed.
• 
  2020-10-23

  Travel During Covid

  Travel during Covid what mostly like any other travel, just with a mask, and people didn't actually want to sit right next to you waiting to board the flights. The actual flights were different, though. The seats were not filled unless you were a member of a party travelling together. That being said, my first class ticket as a single travelling passenger with no other members of my party allowed me to have a full row to myself unlike most flights where everyone is seated in close proximity whether you know the passengers seated next to you or not. It was actually nice in terms of people respecting personal space.
• 
  2020-05-06

  Messages of hope: Street art, teddy bears show a resilient Seattle amid COVID-19

  This is an article about messages from the street in Seattle by street artists, businesses and attractions. This is about a community coming together during a crisis. Organizers created a bear hunt throughout the city displaying a teddybear in the window. At the same time artists are painting messages of hope on boarded up businesses and empty walls.
• 2020-07-13

  Pandemic, Depression, Uprising

  My name is Emily Small Michon, I live in Seattle Washington, it is 1 in the afternoon on a day that used to be called Monday. When I first heard about Covid-19 I had no idea it would affect us this drastically. It felt surreal working at coffee shop watching children put toy dinosaurs in their mouths and how everyone seemed to start paying with cash in spite of the need to be more sanitary. Then I got sick, it was a weird 48 hour flu with a headache and throwing up accompanied by a very sore throat. The night after my headache and throwing up went away my lips were huge. They looked like they had been pumped full of Juvéderm injections or something. I tried to get tested but they told me I didn't meet the criteria since I didn't have a fever or shortness of breath. I was then fired from my job for "trying to get out of working." They sited that I had requested shift coverage from two shifts even before getting sick, they said it seemed like I “did not want to work”, and also mention that I had failed to stamp enough paper cups during my shifts and had had some interpersonal conflict with coworkers. There was a lot of drama at that job and I certainly was not the only one who had been part of the conflict. This all came without any prior complaints or disciplinary actions. Fortunately, I was still able to get unemployment since the company I worked for (Cafe Vita) is large and never responded to inquiry about my job separation. During this time my ex-boyfriend who was also my closest friend became being overly attentive, sweet and concerned about me. He would FaceTime me every day, he sent me a book he thought I would like in the mail and almost every morning would leave cute or funny animal videos in my inbox with messages like I hope you see this when you wake up and have a good day. This didn’t last very long and things turned a corner when I asked if he wanted to watch a movie together… like a shared screen sort of pandemic deal. He strangely responded with, "I don't know that seems like something people in a relationship do." It seemed completely ridiculous to think that you couldn't watch a movie together during a pandemic just as friends but I did want to be in relationship and this had been an area of contention for us for a while so I finally put my foot down and said I could not continue with things the way they were because it wasn't fair to me. It was really painful losing my favorite person, the person I was closest to and enjoyed talking with the most. I know this sort of loss is nothing compared to the stories of people who have lost loved ones. This was just beginning of course. Since then a massive uprising has begun that I feel particularly invested in and yet at the same still an outsider. I have not altogether found my place or decided how much I am willing to sacrifice. There are many people who are putting their body and their life on the line. I was out protesting the night Summer Taylor was killed. For those of you who don't know they were a young Seattle protester who was murdered by vehicular assault while protesting on I-5. The police neglected to blockade one of the off ramps though they had promised to secure the area, and that was their job and responsibility to do. The driver, Dawit Kelete, can be seen in a video maneuvering around two cars acting as safety barricades for the protesters who were chanting and dancing shortly before the brutal crime occurred. Another protester Diaz Love was also severely injured and for a time in critical condition. Upon regaining consciousness, Diaz was confronted with the death of their friend and an overwhelming amount of hate mail in their inbox. They still quickly posted that this would not affect their dedication to the cause. There have been over 60 recorded attempts of vehicular assault during the protests and with the current gains being made by the black lives matter movement. Since this is my personal story, I will tell you that I have also experienced cars acting like they want to run me over. The first was a cement truck who drove up onto the sidewalk towards me. The entire time the man glared at me from piercing blue eyes surrounded by sunburnt skin. This occurred in the capitol hill area somewhat near where the Cal Anderson protests were taking place. For those of you who don't know those were the protests where Seattle protesters received the brunt of police violence. Tear gas and munitions were utilized on an almost nightly basis, however the people persisted, and this led to the establishment of the Capitol Hill autonomous zone (CHAZ)...later known as the Capitol Hill occupied protest or CHOP. The other two incidents happened in my own neighbourhood on two different occasions when I was out for a run. I live in very white residential neighborhood in north Seattle. Both times the drivers made eye contact with me and I nearly had to jump out of the way. It confused me, sadly, because I am a white female and I am not used to experiencing this type of targeting. I am still baffled at what assumptions they would be making about me in my non-descript jogger’s clothes and my now natural hair color. Perhaps they assume all Seattleites are liberal? Maybe it was the inherent misogyny of white nationalists (I think we forget that they hate all women too), then again it could have just been angry men taking out pandemic related frustrations on vulnerable pedestrians....... I will never know.