Much like capturing the perfect moment on film, photographer Robin Layton’s life is a series of moments that are almost hard to believe. Some would call them coincidences, and others, instances of fate. Remember that iconic photo of a grinning Ken Griffey sliding across home plate (“The Smile at the Bottom of the Pile”) to…

As the long, hot days of summer melt away into cooler temps and earlier evenings, Seattleites are about to make the seasonal shift toward indoor activities. While monthly art walks and occasional museum visits are popular year-round, for those in the know, back-to-school sales also signal the start of Fall Arts: the time of year…

Back in March 2021 — just as the drab Seattle winter started to give way to lighter days and slightly higher temperatures — a storefront niche on the always-thronged corner of Capitol Hill’s Pike and Broadway intersection underwent a transformation. Formerly an easy-to-miss entryway sandwiched between a coffee shop and Neighbours Nightclub, the small, windowed…

Join the King County Library System (KCLS) for all-ages summer reading! Earn prizes and attend events at your KCLS library all summer long. Our free Summer Reading Program is open to children, teens, and adults — all are welcome! Visit kcls.org/summer to get started. Here’s how to participate: Drop into your KCLS library to pick up a Reading Challenge log or…

Like all poets, Jane Wong likes to play with language. Collecting words, ordering them, weaving ideas and stories together, then depositing them on paper with the hurried, scrawling motion of a pen or ubiquitous, punctuating taps on a keyboard. The results are magnetic — both for their narrative and lyrical quality. For anyone who has…

Seattle has never wanted to be cool — and that’s precisely what makes it so. When the grunge movement of the ’90s sprung to the forefront of mainstream American culture, Kurt Cobain’s ripped jeans and thrifted cardigans did so in direct opposition to perfectly over-tweezed eyebrows and super-synchronized boy bands. As Clark Humphrey writes in…

David Schmader lives in El Paso, Texas, now, but he’s no stranger to Pacific Northwest culture. Schmader is a former staff writer and editor at Seattle alt publication The Stranger, where he wrote the popular column, “Last Days: The Week in Review” for 18 years. He is also a performer, and his solo plays were…

Seattle may change, but at its core, it will always be that angsty 90’s kid. This year’s Seattle International Film Festival’s (SIFF) lineup of Northwest-centered films presents a reflection of our city from past to present. Over the years, the ongoing conversations about the changing face of Seattle have permeated all industries from tech to…

How many colors do you see?” Artist and architect Iole Alessandrini asks me this on a cold, windy evening in late February. We’re sitting in an attic-like nook in her apartment at West Seattle’s Cooper Artist Housing, a 36-unit former school that has been transformed into an affordable live/work space specifically for artists. I’m looking…

Travis Bettinson wants people to fall in love with kelp. His organic, gluten-free, and vegan puffed kelp snacks, Seacharrones, hit the market last March with a mission to create a sustainable product that bucks the stereotype that seaweed can’t be crave-worthy. With consumers a lot less salty about the idea of sea-based snacks, thanks to…

At Seattle’s newest Indigenous-owned restaurant, ʔálʔal Café (the Lushootseed word means “home” and is pronounced “all-all”), diners can enjoy dishes from tribal nations across the United States. There’s wild rice from the Red Lake Nation in Minnesota; chocolate from the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma; maple sugar and syrup from the Passamaquoddy Tribe in Maine; blue…