Elevating American icons

Real Change
Mon meilleure ami

by Ashley Archibald | March 12th, 2020

A French philosopher ponders his companion

As I began to write this review of “Dogs,” a philosophical treatise on the nature of the human-canine bond by French philosopher Mark Alizart, my dog Rin was curled up at my feet.

Over the past two and a half years, Rin has been my constant companion, and I, his. We have grown together, traveled together and improved each other in profound ways. His joy is contagious, and his need to connect with me and other people has brought this introvert true introspection and into closer communion with the people I interact with on a daily basis.
Read more in the Mar. 11-17, 2020 issue.
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Real Change
Establishing new roots

by Christine McManigal | March 12th, 2020

Wing Luke's 'Woven Together' exhibit tells stories of immigration

Diversity is a struggle and a strength. That’s one of the many messages behind the Wing Luke Museum’s new exhibit, “Woven Together: Stories of Burma / Myanmar.”
Read more in the Mar. 11-17, 2020 issue.
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Real Change
Whaling conflict

by Mike Wold | March 11th, 2020

‘Contesting Leviathan’ documents the dispute between a Native culture and protecting a species

Just over 20 years ago, the Makah Indian Tribe asserted its treaty rights by hunting a gray whale off the Washington coast. Although the whale hunt was successful, it was followed by an unsuccessful hunt the next year, and by a “rogue” (federally unauthorized) hunt in 2007, which led to arrest and jail terms for Makahs who were involved. Approval of another authorized hunt has been tied up in the courts and the environmental permit process since then.
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Real Change
Death and dysfunction

by Dave Gamrath | February 28th, 2020

A physician suggests ways to bring our health care system back to life

Elisabeth Rosenthal, a Harvard-trained physician, decided to forgo practicing medicine and write about it instead. She spent more than two decades at The New York Times before becoming editor at Kaiser Health News. Her book “An American Sickness” is a bold attempt to dissect America’s health care system and provide readers a thorough yet readable history on the system’s evolution, dysfunction and strategic development to be as profitable as possible for providers, at the expense of patients.
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Real Change
Web of deceit

by Joe Martin | February 19th, 2020

In 'The Fixers,' two longtime journalists document the business of flies that swarm around Donald Trump

Oh my, what sleaze and sludge swirls about the tainted and still unfolding biography of Donald J. Trump — you know, the chief executive of our country. The same guy who saw fit to bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the vituperative bully Rush Limbaugh, whose scurrilous litany of hate, bigotry and misogyny has vitiated radio airwaves for decades. In their engrossing book, “The Fixers,” authors Joe Palazzolo and Michael Rothfeld prove unstoppable in their venture through the sordid swamp of Trump. Both were at the Wall Street Journal while pursuing this salacious story.
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Real Change
Looking @ us

by Anna Power | February 19th, 2020

Susan Russell, a vendor of this newspaper for seven years, experienced homelessness after a severe car crash injury put her out of work. Real Change gave Russell a sense of community when she felt she had none, and its Portrait Project helped her feel seen.
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Real Change
A contemplation of ‘Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)’

by Cliff Cawthon | February 12th, 2020

If Marvel Studios called dibs on Christmas, Yule, Flag Day, Homecoming, Kwanzaa, International Women’s Day and Easter, then DC Films has nabbed Mardi Gras with a woman emerging from a party backdrop.

“Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation … )” brings back Margot Robbie to play fan favorite Harley Quinn after the character’s film debut in the 2016 “Suicide Squad.”
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Real Change
Aaron Fowler speaks art into existence at SAM

by Ragini Gupta | February 10th, 2020

Using unconventional materials and discarded objects, such as broken mirrors, cotton balls, hair weaves and car parts sourced from his local surroundings, Aaron Fowler creates elaborate assemblage paintings of lived and imagined narratives from personal experiences and those of his loved ones.

Fowler’s “Into Existence” exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) consists of four large-scale, mixed-media works echoing words of encouragement from his grandmother: “You need to speak it into existence.”

The recipient of SAM’s 2019 Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize, which is awarded biannually to an early-career Black artist, Fowler finds that the idea of speaking things into existence is a solution to what he’s going through in life.

“Everyone that I paint, I usually know,” Fowler said.
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Real Change
Overarching racism

by Mike Wold | February 10th, 2020

Mathea Morais' 'There You Are' deals with segregation in St. Louis

Segregation didn’t vanish in the 1960s. That’s evident in Mathea Morais’ novel “There You Are,” which is about growing up in St. Louis in the 1990s. Despite legal integration, the St. Louis of the novel is an extremely segregated city, where most whites and Blacks grow up barely knowing members of the other race, making them objects of anger and fear.
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Real Change
Elevating American icons

by Lee Nacozy | January 29th, 2020

Knowledge Bennett paves his 'Road to Damascus' with pop culture

Knowledge Bennett is a self-taught artist transforming pop art iconography. He comprised a collection of his large painted and silkscreened works for an exhibit lasting January through May at Western Washington University.

Born in New Jersey, Bennett grew up in the 1980s and ’90s Northeast, when postmodern art was becoming less revolutionary and more recognizable.
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