Around Seattle this spring: jazz, art, and other historic coalitions

KUOW’s Kim Malcolm was joined by Amanda Ong, an arts, culture, and community reporter at the South Seattle Emerald, to discuss happenings around town during spring 2022.

Seattle Jazz Fellowship at Vermillion Art Bar and Gallery

The Fellowship Wednesday Spring series is running for the next month. Every week they pair two groups of different jazz styles. I spoke with their founder, Thomas Marriott, a Seattle jazz performer. While there are other jazz clubs in Seattle, none of them are catered to local acts. Most of them are catered to touring national acts, which left Thomas and other Seattle jazz players wondering, where do we go now? Where do we perform, and more than that, teach young people about what it's like to perform live jazz? Their hope is to one day be able to have their own jazz club.

Black & Tan Hall’s Seattle Self-Guided Green Book Tour

One of my favorites is Club Royale, a club that was formerly in the Louisa Hotel in the 1920s and 1930s. They have gorgeous murals under renovation, original murals from the 1920s that show Black folks during the Prohibition era at Club Royale itself. Outside is a mural by local Seattle Asian American artist monyee chau. It’s a cool commentary on the fact that this place is actually in the CID, and that Asian American communities and Black communities have both existed here for over 100 years, and have existed together, and thriving together, in coalition.

Hanako O’Leary and Molly Vaughan at ARTS at King Street Station

The King Street Station, besides being a really beautiful building, also has this amazing restored art space upstairs. Their exhibit coming up on May 5 focuses on transgender transformation, the creation of identity, and feminine power.

Hanako O’Leary’s work does an amazing job of talking about that through a cultural lens. She uses ceramic sculptures that are influenced by prehistoric Japanese fertility goddesses, theater masks, and samurai armor. I'm really looking forward to that one as well.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.