Episodes

  • 🎧 Power of Place Episode #49 | Inspiration Generation – Colleen Echohawk

    🎧 Power of Place Episode #49 | Inspiration Generation – Colleen Echohawk
    Apr 26 2024
    What becomes possible when solutions to modern urban society’s most pressing challenges—housing the unhoused, corporate innovation, designing more beautiful places & objects—originate from the communities who have inhabited this place from time immemorial? Guiding us through this multifaceted exploration is Colleen Echohawk. Currently CEO of the Native lifestyle brand Eighth Generation, Colleen’s resume encompasses city politics including a Seattle mayoral run 2021. Earlier, as Executive Director of Chief Seattle Club for seven years, she oversaw the creation of 300 new units of affordable housing. Collen spotlights today’s rising generation of indigenous government and business leaders as well Indian Country’s most admired cultural creators. She suggests that a more enduring and just society would be place-based. In the case of Seattle, this involves incorporating Native values including those of the region's indigenous Lushootseed-speaking Coast Salish peoples. Inspired by Potlatch culture, for example, Colleen challenges corporate leaders to reimagine established notions of prestige and prosperity. Colleen’s mellifluous tales fuse with the harmonies of Black Belt Eagle Scout and the rhythms of Supaman. These young recording artists amplify the critical and ongoing dialogue between tradition and invention, a dynamic embedded in Colleen’s heartening life, work and stories. "We talk in Indian Country about how we are trying to help reframe folks to say, hey; ‘we are not just in these museums, we are not just artifacts…we are actually living, thriving communities." ~Colleen Echohawk
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    59 mins
  • 🎧 Power of Place Episode #48 | Talking CHOP – Nikki Yeboah

    🎧 Power of Place Episode #48 | Talking CHOP – Nikki Yeboah
    Mar 1 2024
    Join us as we stroll through Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) circa 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our guest, documentary playwright Nikki Yeboah, begins this journey at 11th & Pine, the CHOP’s epicenter—and the title of her current project. Yeboah, an Assistant Professor of Playwriting in the School of Drama at the University of Washington, shares how her team gathered oral histories of over 30 protestors, stories that allow her to convey this momentous event’s impact on its participants. She also explores why nearly all traces of the occupation (including street art, soup kitchens and vegetable gardens) vanished so quickly after the protest ended. Throughout this episode, experience the good vibes of hip-hop fusionists Marshall Law Band, courtesy of its leader Marshall Hugh, who rallied his bandmates to perform throughout the occupation. "CHOP was utopic. No matter how people feel it ended, it began utopically; it was a desire to create a space in which everyone was welcome, regardless of your class, or sexuality or race.” ~Nikki Yeboah
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    50 mins
  • 🎧 Power of Place Episode #47 | Crossing Coastal Corners – Andrew tenBrink

    🎧 Power of Place Episode #47 | Crossing Coastal Corners – Andrew tenBrink
    Jan 31 2024
    Join us for a conversation with landscape and urban designer Andrew tenBrink of NYC-based Field Operations as he reveals Seattle’s new downtown Waterfront Park project, which he has managed since 2010. From the cobblestones of Pioneer Square to Belltown’s crowded skyline, Andrew’s block-by-block tour through the 20-acre park demonstrates how this new landscape reflects community priorities. Along the way, he spotlights contributions of local partners. These include architects and artists, tribes and Urban Natives, the City of Seattle and the Office of the Waterfront and Capitol Projects, as well as cultural consultants and garden designers. Indigenous food sovereignty advocate Valerie Segrest (Muckleshoot) drops by to share thoughts on placemaking and history. Valerie explains how the interpretive horticultural exhibit she designed for the new Overlook Walk invites visitors to gaze across the Salish Sea while learning about Native cultural ecosystems. These walkways, stairs and plazas connect the Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion at the shoreline with Pike Place Market. Andrew’s inspiring stories reveal how a brilliant framework can express the civic dreams of multitudes. They demonstrate how city dwellers are most grounded when connected with nature, with themselves and with one another. Listen and learn how these new public spaces reflect the varied histories and cultures that define a great city and that will shape its future. "Outdoor space has always been at its best when people use it as a part of their daily lives: You take a stroll in the park, you unwind, you de-stress, you take your kids to the playground. These are the indelible things that exist across the world across time.” ~Andrew tenBrink
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    57 mins
  • 🎧 Power of Place Episode #46 | Porchlight Parade – Zack Bolotin

    🎧 Power of Place Episode #46 | Porchlight Parade – Zack Bolotin
    Dec 27 2023
    Step into the multiverse of Zack Bolotin, owner-operator of Porchlight Coffee & Records on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Not just a cafe, Porchlight is a platform for Zack’s varied talents, including graphic design, photography, art curation, book publishing and online retailing. It’s also a record label. Listen as Zack describes how his endeavors, admittedly wide-ranging, are anchored in his family's history and an affection for old things. He shares how he incorporated his parents' memorabilia collection into Porchlight's publication "62 Souvenirs: Keepsakes from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair." Zack also recounts his discovery of mid-century architectural photography by Art Hupy published in “Pacific Architect & Builder,” a defunct trade journal produced by Zack’s grandfather Roscoe Laing. Reminiscent to Zack of Julius Shulman's contemporaneous work in Southern California, he restored and published a selection of Hupy’s photos as "Art Hupy: Architecture and Life in the Pacific Northwest" in collaboration with Docomomo US/WEWA. Accompanying Zack’s inspiring stories are songs from an assortment of Porchlight Records' labelmates, among them his collaborative project, Pretty Old, whose tracks blend ruminations on remote motels, fictions by Raymond Carver and memories of roadside attractions. A self-taught entrepreneur, Zack chose to keep his business small, sustainable and anchored in community. His maverick spirit—casual, classically Pacific Northwest—affirms that a livelihood can be both purposeful and expansive. These lighthearted stories uphold Zack’s city as a place of goodness. "As much as a city is made by people; it’s made by the buildings and businesses that come and go as well; you can’t advocate for every single building to stay where it is. You have to pick and choose. There’s a balance between preservation and new buildings. That’s how it always has been.” ~ Zack Bolotin
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    1 hr
  • 🎧 Power of Place Episode #45 | Echoes From Alpenglow – Lowell Skoog

    🎧 Power of Place Episode #45 | Echoes From Alpenglow – Lowell Skoog
    Nov 27 2023
    Click into your bindings as we launch from the highest peaks of the North Cascades with ski mountaineering historian Lowell Skoog, author of "Written in the Snows: Across Time on Skis in the Pacific Northwest," published by Mountaineers Books and 2022 winner of the National Outdoor Book Award (NOBA) for historical writing. Born to a family of Nordic ski jumpers, Lowell pioneered ski mountaineering routes across remote reaches of the Cascade and Olympic mountains. His stories abound in evocative details and introduce memorable characters like Wolf Bauer, Olga Bolstad, Hans Otto Giese and Milnor Roberts. Chronicling the birth of Pacific Northwest skiing from a little-known sport of immigrants to cultural cornerstone, Lowell conveys the wonderment of Scandinavian settlers waking to Seattle’s first big snow in 1916; the camaraderie enjoyed by founders of early Pacific Northwest ski clubs; and the chaos of the 1934 Silver Skis race. His characters range from backwoods trappers to the heroic fighters of the United States Army’s 10th Mountain Division—some of whom would later develop North America’s postwar ski industry. Amidst our current backdrop of climate change, Lowell’s snowy memoirs—portrayals of sanctuary and loss—are also a poignant record of a threatened pastime. "Being up in the mountains and having that connection with the natural world…is really healthy. It can help you forget about short term concerns; you are in a place that’s been there forever…and will be there forever.” ~Lowell Skoog
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    58 mins
  • 🎧 Power of Place Episode #44 | My Brother’s Keepers - Larry Johnston and Earl Borgert

    🎧 Power of Place Episode #44 | My Brother’s Keepers - Larry Johnston and Earl Borgert
    Oct 27 2023
    Swing into the B & I Circus Store circa 1964 with guest Larry Johnston, who at age 13 became brother to a western lowland gorilla named Ivan—-the ape that became as emblematic of the Pacific Northwest as the legendary Sasquatch. Larry narrates the tale of how his parents came to own the B & I pet store, thanks to Orca capturer Ted Griffin. He warmly remembers the store’s ever-changing menagerie, which included gibbons, jaguars, lions, seals, an elephant, exotic fish and even Amazonian parrots. Most poignantly, he shares stories of growing up with the young Ivan. Join Larry on a journey that takes you from Hollywood movie sets to an unexpected encounter involving one of America’s most esteemed civil rights figures. Fast forward to today, where students from the Seattle Jewish Community School share questions from their reading of The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. Adding to our list of notable voices, Jodi Carrigan, the Curator of Primates at Zoo Atlanta, reflects on her relationship with Ivan in his later years. Rounding off our tale, Earl Borgert, grandson of B & I's founder Earl Irwin, presents the I.V.A.N. Foundation, dedicated to preserving wildlife habitats. (To hear additional stories of the B & I Circus Store, tune in to Episode #40, “The Wizard of Earl,” for a conversation with Ron Irwin, who ran the store for decades following the passing of his father, store founder Earl Irwin). "He was…unique in so many ways. He loved to engage people. Ivan just relished making connection.” ~Larry Johnston
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    59 mins
  • 🎧 Power of Place Episode #43 | The Maker – Art Chantry

    🎧 Power of Place Episode #43 | The Maker – Art Chantry
    Sep 28 2023
    Dive into the second episode of this two-part series as we continue our conversation with graphic designer, Art Chantry, whose stories sparkle as vibrantly as his colorful posters, offering original insights from Seattle’s grunge era. These tales span Art’s diverse interests and influences: The allure of archaeology; Dadaism & Surrealism; old commercial art by overlooked masters, accidental inking errors. Chantry exposes the misguided muddling of fine art with graphic design and then explains how graphic design underscores propaganda and politics. Art concludes by heralding a new book showcasing Estrus Records, home of bands like The Makers, Mono Men and The Mummies. He confesses that his posters and album covers for these bands were his most liberated. So, this publication is a faithful retrospective for a maverick homegrown genius whose impact is international. "You are standing next to this pond that suddenly emerges and you throw a pebble into the water and this ripple would start. And it got bigger...and before you know, it's a tidal wave; then you hit the shoreline and it's a tsunami and it wipes out half of America; and it's like: 'Wow...I did that....' We were close enough where we could do things like that and actually watch it happen." ~ Art Chantry
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    38 mins
  • 🎧 Power of Place Episode #42 | Louder Than Art – Art Chantry

    🎧 Power of Place Episode #42 | Louder Than Art – Art Chantry
    Sep 15 2023
    Join us in this episode (the first of a two-part series) for a conversation with graphic designer Art Chantry, a national treasure, whose posters are collected by The Smithsonian and The Louvre. Opening with childhood memories of Parkland on the fringes of Tacoma, Washington, Art describes a restless educational path that eventually brought him to Bellingham. He shares experiences of his subsequent arrival to Seattle in the 1980’s, including street observations that shaped his aesthetics. He tells of art directing the music biweekly magazine The Rocket on a shoestring budget before launching a one-man graphic design firm, churning out hundreds of posters, logos and album covers for rock bands including Soundgarden and Mudhoney associated with Sub Pop, Estrus and other home-grown record labels. Art’s stories reveal the genesis of a vital visual lexicon—subversive, populist and modern—that simultaneously reflected and transformed the Pacific Northwest: From a backwater for “losers,” to the forefront of global popular culture in the 1990’s and beyond. "It’s black and white. It's scrappy. There’s not a straight line on the whole goddamn thing. It looks like it was cut and pasted together out of chunks of Xerox junk. It is just an atrocious mess. And it’s beautiful…. It’s so alive—You still look at it and it makes your heart jump!” ~ Art Chantry
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    40 mins