In this episode, we catch up with Anthony & Marlie Love, travel vloggers and creators of the YouTube show Traveling While Black in Seattle and @TWBSeattle on TikTok.
A local married couple, they travel together to various Pacific Northwest destinations and share their comfort level as Black people visiting there for the first time. After three years, Anthony & Marlie have garnered 5,000 YouTube subscribers and 50,000 followers on TikTok. They’ve also established brand partnership that include the Pike Place Market and the Space Needle.
Anthony & Marlie highlight key moments from their first 100 episodes: They explain how the Covid-19 pandemic (February 2020, first reported in Kirkland, WA) as well as the murder of George Floyd (May 2020) and the Black Lives Matter protests that ensued, have shaped their work. They also share how they’ve used TikTok to increase their reach. Anthony & Marlie conclude with an announcement of a new expansion to their mission.
After listening to this episode, you may never experience travel in the Pacific Northwest the same way again.
“Whether you are travelling while Black, White, Asian, whatever…at the end of the day you just want to be welcomed and treated like a human being. That’s all we’re all looking for: Why we do our show is because that’s not the case for a lot of folks who don’t look a certain way.” - Anthony Love
Here are Marlie, Anthony, & Edward recording in the studio at Jack Straw Cultural Center, August 2022:
Join us in this episode for a conversation with Stephanie Lile, director of Gig Harbor’s Harbor History Museum, together with the Museum’s shipwright Riley Hall.
They chronicle their community’s historic working waterfront for more than a century by sharing stories embedded in the museum’s collection of over 20,000 objects, images & ephemera. These objects include the Shenandoah, a 65-foot-long purse skeiner whose restoration is a work in progress overseen by Riley. The museum also houses relics of the ill-fated Narrow’s Bridge, together with the first production model of the Thunderbird, a sailboat-cruiser by Seattle-based yacht designer Ben Seaborn and a classic of mid-century PNW design. It was created at Gig Harbor’s historic Eddon Boatyard in 1957 after the Douglas Fir Plywood Association challenged boatbuilders and designers to create vessel entirely of plywood.
Tune in to hear these and other stories of Gig Harbor’s boatbuilding cultures—indigenous and immigrant—from those whose mission it is to preserve and share them.
“Many people come to the museum to try to find out ‘well, what’s the story of this place.’ But there are some unique characteristics about Gig Harbor that many people are not aware of: They see them; they intrinsically feel them; but until you begin to dig into those stories, you don’t really know the significance of that site.” - Stephanie Lile
Here are Stephanie, Riley, & Edward recording in the studio at Jack Straw Cultural Center, July 2022:
Join us in this episode for a conversation with Lisa Fruichantie, citizen of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and Executive Director of ALMA, an expansive campus carved out of an old union hall anchored within Tacoma’s historic Hilltop neighborhood.
This multifaceted business and venue are devoted to creating community by incubating and presenting a diverse range art, food, culture and music. ALMA includes state-of-the-art recording studios as well as a 500-person performance venue. This place describes itself as a welcoming and inclusive gathering spot that channels, celebrates, and seeks to nourish the soul of this land, the people on it, the people from it, and those just passing through.
Lisa, a 20-year mainstay of Tacoma’s art scene, describes her distinct approach to leading her organization, which includes aligning ALMA with indigenous values.
“Make them feel welcome. Say “Hello.” Start a conversation. Share space with them. Break bread. I think a meal with someone is one of the most powerful things you can ever do.” - Lisa Fruichantie
Here is Lisa & Edward recording in the studio at Jack Straw Cultural Center, June 2022:
Join us in this episode for a conversation with Eric Reynolds, Vice-President of Seattle-based publisher Fantagraphics.
Headquartered in Seattle’s Maple Leaf community—with their Bookstore & Gallery in the industrial Georgetown neighborhood—Fantagraphics has quietly produced a stunning body of work over the last 40+ years. Their genres span alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines and graphic novels. The imprint’s stable of contemporary comics creators includes Jessica Abel, Peter Bagge, Ivan Brunetti, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Mary Fleener, Roberta Gregory, Mega Kelso, Manny Murphy, Joe Sacco, and Chris Ware. They also include the enigmatic artistry of Jim Woodring as well as the magical realism of the Hernandez Brothers.
Eric’s passion for comics brought him to Seattle in the early 1990’s at age 20 to intern at Fantagraphics, whose owners soon promoted him to publicist. In this podcast, Eric explores synergies between the fledgling alternative comics movement and Sub Pop Records, as well as independent media (including The Rocket & The Stranger) during this watershed period. These and other stories reveal Eric’s purposeful stewardship of a vulnerable yet resolute enterprise through untold business obstacles, elevating comics into a mature art form along the way. For Eric, Fantagraphics remains a labor of love.
“Sometimes it’s a matter of be careful what you ask for; But it really is incredible to see comics taken seriously as art in a way that we could only dream about, years ago.” - Eric Reynolds
Here is Eric & Edward recording in the studio at Jack Straw Cultural Center, May 2022:
Join us in this episode for a conversation with Instagram phenom Susanna Ryan, author of the Seattle Walk Report Series; Seattle Walk Report an Illustrated Walking Tour Through 23 Seattle Neighborhoods (2019) and Secret Seattle, An Illustrated Guide to the City’s Offbeat and Overlooked History (2021).
Susanna's distinctive comic style and eagle eye illustrate the charming and quirky people, places, and things that define Seattle’s neighborhoods. Her wide-ranging observations infuse pedestrian experiences with the possibility of discovery and wonder—and an expanded connection to the world as we pass through it. In this episode Susanna will also field questions from local children—all avid readers of Seattle Walk Report.
“Through Seattle Walk Report and through being just more open and present with what is, it’s changed how I see the world completely; and how I see my own life—and my own Journey. It’s all Journey; never destination. This comic has changed how I see everything.” - Susanna Ryan
Here is Susanna & Edward recording in the studio at Jack Straw Cultural Center, April 2022:
Pull up a bar stool and join us in this episode for a conversation with Timothy Dooley-regular, bartender and now owner of the historic Seattle tavern, the “Blue Moon.”
Founded in 1934 just after Prohibition to serve mostly college students, the Blue Moon has since been serving up a heady mix of politics, poetry, visual art, and live music, while building community spanning generations. Come learn the lore of Seattle’s landmark watering hole.
“I’ve talked to people from all over the world and people have said there’s not really any place like this: People from New York; people from London; people from other parts of Europe…say this place is special. We have had visitors come in from all over the world and they say just that.” -Timothy Dooley
Here is Dooley & Edward recording in the studio at Jack Straw Cultural Center, March 2022:
Join us in this episode for a conversation with Michael Hoover. Michael was recently granted clemency—from a life prison sentence without chance of parole—by the Governor of the State of Washington.
Michael's is a cautionary tale...on remaining anchored to place; and to people. An upbringing of affluence in Woodway, Washington failed to protect Michael from childhood abuse; devolving into addiction, homelessness, and crime, for which he paid through two decades behind bars.
Michael will also share details about Stone Bridge Re-entry Services, which he founded in Asotin, WA with his wife Stephanie, so that they might guide others from incarceration to emancipation.
"I went from one second of being buried under the prison to now I have this paper in my hand that says I'm going to be free someday." - Michael Hoover
Here is Michael & Edward recording in the studio at Jack Straw Cultural Center, March 2022:
Welcome to our first podcast episode of 2022. Beginning with this episode, EK on the Go is now Power of Place, Stories of the Pacific Northwest, with a new appearance and soundscape.
In this episode we will hear from one of Pacific Northwest’s most acclaimed living novelists, Jim Lynch. Jim's approach to storytelling reflects both meticulous research as well as years living and working in four distinct locales: The wild mudflats of Eld Inlet near Washington State's capitol in Olympia; the Canada-U.S. Border near Blaine, WA; Downtown Seattle at the time of the Century21 Exposition; as well as the docks of Victoria, B.C. and the sea-based boating culture connecting all of these lands. Jim will also provide us with a glimpse into his upcoming novel.
"I had never really read a novel that tried to put readers right on mudflats, right down into Puget Sound, as opposed to it being a backdrop." - James Lynch
Join us in our final episode of 2021 with guest Richard Hartlage, Founder & CEO of Land Morphology. His firm has designed gardens for the Chihuly Garden and Glass at Seattle Center, the upcoming 20-acre Seattle Waterfront Park, and the private gardens of celebrities and CEO's nationwide.
Richard will explain how thoughtful and intelligent garden design has engendered joy and happiness by activating all of our senses, across millennia and across cultures.
We will learn how important this form of happiness can be in harried urban centers such as Seattle.
"I garden. And gardening is about a craft. I don’t say that we practice an art form. I think art asks questions and design answers questions." - Richard Hartlage
Join us in this episode for a conversation with Tom Heuser, President of the Capitol Hill Historic Society, and artist-photographer Lana Blinderman about the distinctive though oft-overlooked architectural history of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
For decades, the Hill’s midcentury apartments and condominiums provided architectural ambiance and offered relatively affordable housing, becoming spaces for communities and cultures to gather. Thanks to a grant from King County's Arts & Heritage organization 4Culture at the start of the pandemic, Tom and Lana were able to survey their vibrant neighborhood's multifamily buildings. Tune in to hear about what they discovered in city courtyards and alleys and the aesthetic and civic importance of documenting architecture.
“[P]eople adapt buildings to what they need and buildings grow with people.” - Lana Blinderman
