Stand in Silence, Wear Black to honor and mourn all Casualties of War. Stand for Social Justice. Stand for Peace. Men in solidarity with Women In Black always welcome. No formal commitment. Bring your heart and your intention. Come and stand whenever and however long you can. Rain or shine. In front of The Turning Point one block west of Sprague, between State and Trafton. for history and more general information: www.womeninblack.org.

The Turning Point Integrated Therapies
2211 6th Ave.
Tacoma, WA 98403
(253) 272-7876

Event Hours

5:30-6:30 pm

Event Price

Free

Come face to face with real poets speaking for a difference in Exhibit Talk & Poetry Reading. In honor of National Poetry Month, join 2010-11 Tacoma Poet Laureate Tammy Robacker and writer Maria Gudaitis with special guest poets as they read poems in response to "Hope in Hard Times: Washington During the Great Depression." The public will be invited to enjoy an exhibition briefing, a walk around the exhibit, a break with refreshments, and admission to the special poetry reading at 3 p.m. in the Auditorium. Guests are also invited to join the poets at a post-event poetry party from 4 - 6 p.m. at Anthem Coffee and Tea in the museum plaza.
This is not to be missed.
Washington State History Museum
1911 Pacific Avenue
Tacoma, WA 98402-3109
(253) 272-3500

Levi Meinzer was not the first person in my downtown circles that I would imagine as a father.  Pictured here with his happy child, Persephone, he seems to be doing an excellent job. 

In the day Levi was one of the few people brave enough (or crazy enough) to drop Tacoma's hills on a skate-deck.  Always friendly and surprising me with his knowledge of the astral world, he and his brother, Eli, were often my compatriots outside of the old Kickstand Cafe.  Since then he has moved to Fox Island, where he lived in a cabin with the love of his life and now baby's mamma. 

Levi is one of those kids that no matter where he goes or what he does, will always and forever be Tacoma.  The grit spirit has him by the balls, and he wears it on his sleeves.   

A short time employee of University Place-based alternative sportswear company One Ball Jay, Levi is currently the operator of the Pink Mail-Jeep ice cream truck with his sister, Jasmine.  A calm and soft-spoken fellow, I have always known him to be friendly and level headed - the type of gentleman that I would take with me if I had a meeting with some leg-breaker loan sharks under the bridge of the new China Gardens.

DANIEL BLUE: MEET RON GEIER >>>

Ron Geier is a soundman.  He also is a rare and interesting source of Tacoma's culture history.  Having grown up in this town, played in bands in the 80's and since moved to Korea and back, his memories of the pre-boom Tacoma are both adorable and hilarious. 

I met Ron when he moved in next door to me in the beautiful alcove we have carved out of the alleyways of downtown.  He has all sorts of valuable knowledge about sound and lights and recording. He has been forever generous to lend his skill and gear when our budding art sensibilities called for a show off session.  Ron has provided stage, sound and lights for at least six events that I have squeezed into the Tacoma public eye. 

I've fond memories of late nights drinking and swapping stories over the kitchen bar inside the Warehouse. 

Ron is a stand up man, and a good friend to have in your corner.  His ingenuity and creative thinking are unrivaled among his peers.

DANIEL BLUE: MEET JEREMY WEBSTER >>>

Jeremy Webster is the best Guitar Hero player I have ever seen.  Most Guitar Hero players aren't proficient on the actual instrument, but Jeremy plays the funky base like it was a woman - a ticklish screaming woman, scream screaming the blues. 

Jeremy lives on his own in Tacoma with no help from anyone.  He is a paper machine cutter by day, band member by night.

We actually grew up down the street from each other. My cousin Zac lived around the corner and we would compete for Zac's guitar prowess, each of us trying to monopolize him into our own project. 

In 1993 Zac and Jeremy produced a song called "Monster Cookie Land" and I knew it was over for me.  Jeremy and I became friends much later through mutual connections in the Auburn area. 

Generous as a beaver, he acquired my first cell phone then he put me on his family plan.  I still owe him money.

LINK: The Tacoma Files archive

DANIEL BLUE: MEET DAVID FEWSTER >>>

David Fewster and I used to see each other more - mainly at open mics.  A few years ago the Tacoma open mic circuit was alive and buzzing with what we thought was the ultimate manifestation of our arts renaissance - spoken word, the poetry mic, the slams, the crowds, the girls - oh the beatnik groupies, such fond memories. 

David hails from a time when beat was more than a sideline competition for wanna-be MCs.  His words sometimes are like warnings, urging me not to fantasize too much about becoming Jack Kerouack or Ken Kesey.  His poems tell me that being an artist is hard and people often are sad and hungry.  This work is real, not waiting for my permission to speak honestly. 

Currently married, making music and working at the used book store near Freighthouse Square, David has moved from the open mic circuit to the performance art/modern dance scene, starring in recent works from Barefoot Studios. 

Its good to see him - the Godfather of the Tacoma beats.

LINK: The Tacoma Files archive

DANIEL BLUE: MEET KENNON CHRISTEL >>>

Kennon Christel sits quietly and gazes out at the world around him. He watches busy lives with mild interest as he sips his fancy coffee drinks in contentment.

Recently graduated from the Tacoma School of the Arts, Kennon is an extremely talented guitar player. His riffs are haunting and reminiscent of a better time in the music industry. A time where male three-part harmonies were normal accoutrements to complicated Lydian and diminished scales.

Kennon sits or stands in the back of the room at most concerts. He likes to close his eyes behind his dark glasses, no one knows what he is thinking, but I have a pretty good guess. This tight legged wiry sprig is dreaming of California, touching the orange steel of the golden gate bridge with his tongue and wandering about in rough spun frocks with people who just want to make music all day long.

"You can write about me as long as when people read it they think I'm some kind of weirdo", he told me as I was snapping his photo through the open window of the Black Water Cafe. OK.

Kennon is a total weirdo; I met him through another total weirdo in the music community named Kyle. They go down to the practice space and do unspeakably weird things with their six strings. Unimaginably weird. Nearly pagan. I mean weird here, beyond gonzo. Sometimes they play notes that don't even sound good together. All in a row, over and over. Whoa.

Anyway, if Kennon does not move to Portland with the leader of Team Unicorn, I hope he plays music here forever.

LINK: The Tacoma Files archive

DANIEL BLUE: MEET RON SWARNER >>>

Ron Swarner is the co-owner, publisher, editor, and master and magician of the Weekly Volcano. There are few people who work as hard in this town to achieve what they know in their hearts to be their passion. It will be hard to write about Ron without writing about his paper, but seeing as that would seem like shameless self advertising, I will try to write about the man's character instead.

Raised by hippies in the mountains of Zimbabwe, Ron was a special child from the very start. He could speak all seven dialects of the Swahili people by the age of 5 and began a sort of word of mouth news network from village to village that included advertisements for local goats milk for which he received a pig's bladder full every month. His fondest memories are of helping his mother churn the fresh goat milk into cheese. He would take half the cheese to the capitol city of Harare where he quickly learned English from a wealthy safari hunting man named (no shit) Volcano Joe.

Murky details surround Ron's youth, rumor has it that Volcano Joe's dying wish put him on a boat to America, a boat that sailed into our very own Commencement Bay.

LINK: The Tacoma Files archive

DANIEL BLUE: MEET TAREK JORDAN >>>

Tarek Jordan is a multicultural icon.

Recently obsessed with contacting the future, I actually met Jordan in the past. Our first conversation was several years ago during a ride back from his parent's house in North Tacoma, he struck me then as a clever minded youth with a propensity to seek out the fantastic. Psychedelia has been kind to Tarek.

During a brief encounter with his artistic side in the basement of a now defunct Paris Spleen domicile, I discovered his ability to channel nearly every dominant strain of 70's rock demon as we painted rhythmically in the black light. The backbone of many bands, including the ever-present Drug Purse, this leather clad young townie knows only the limits of his own sardonic soul.

"How has it come to this? I've been trying to get to the future for days," he tells me outside of The Helm gallery as a discount bottle of cough syrup is passed between our hands, "I've been the future, were fucked, man. Jesus never comes back." 

This is the wisdom of our age. This is the brilliance of the hive mind that was created in the basements of an anti-bohemian resistance.

LINK: The Tacoma Files archive

DANIEL BLUE: MEET SARA ROUGEAU >>>

Sara Rougeau's first bike was a yellow tiger that we found on the side of the road. Tires were flat, the brakes were squeaky but the shifters worked and it had this badass scratching action tiger crest on the headstock.  That was a salad summer, wherein most of the day was spent rolling around with the gang looking for ingredients to the ridiculous salad/gouache that we would eat with everyone that afternoon.

She lived with her father on a golf course at the time and would crash at the warehouse four to five nights a week. Now she belongs here, has her own apartment downtown and a newer, better, faster red 10-speed.   

There is something elegant and yet very childlike about the way that Sara carries herself and the way in which she expresses that self in her explosive marker drawings.  Complex patterns swirl and cope about simple symbolic shapes.  An inordinate amount of color goes into the production, but it always blends as well as one could ask and moves the lens around the communication in question. 

Her wish is for all to be comforted and feel well loved. She is a ruby set in a topaz hand.

LINK: The Tacoma Files archive