Two new venues hoping to add new dimensions to Capitol Hill’s nightlife scene have welcomed their first patrons.
On E Pike, Cultura Seattle has a full club calendar already after a September grand opening.
Down E Pine, things are still getting squared away but Massive is also starting to fill up its dance club card with a small wave of November events as the new club in the overhauled former home of R Place ramps up.
In one of the truest rites of passage, both clubs already have their first Capitol Hill Halloween celebrations under their belts. Continue reading →
The Seattle Gay News, one of the oldest queer news publications in the country and a staple of the clutter of newspapers, zines, and flyers that have pleasantly littered Capitol Hill hangouts for decades, has a new owner and a new, more regional mission.
Stratus Group has acquired SGN to add to its expanding LGBTQ+ newsmagazine business. Publications include Coastal Pride of Ocean Shores, Washington and publications in Bellingham and Spokane.
“In stepping into the pilothouse of the SGN, I do so with stewardship in mind and humility. But I also open this new chapter with an innate and tenacious enthusiasm to further our causes of visibility, equality, and dignity,” Stratus publisher Mike Schultz said in a letter published in the latest edition of SGN. Continue reading →
Three Dollar Bill Cinema is proud to announce the full lineup of film screenings and special events for the 28th Seattle Queer Film Festival (SQFF), taking place October 12-22 at venues on Capitol Hill and in Columbia City. The festival will be followed by a week of select films streaming online from October 22-29. The diverse slate of queer cinema hails from across the globe and includes narrative features, documentaries, and short films totaling 53 programs comprised of 119 films.
In-person screenings take place at SIFF Cinema Egyptian, Northwest Film Forum, Broadway Performance Hall, Ark Lodge Cinema, and Queer/Bar, and virtual screenings are available in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska. Tickets go on sale September 15, 2023. Passes are on sale now.
The 2023 festival theme is “Queer Joy Is Cinematic.” Festival screenings and events will explore what ‘queer joy’ means to members of the LGBTQ+ community. Continue reading →
The man who pleaded guilty in a winter 2020 arson attack on Capitol Hill’s Queer/Bar has been sentenced to four years in jail, the United States Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Kalvinn Garcia, 26, was sentenced to 48 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his “bias-motivated arson” at 11th Ave’s Queer/Bar. CHS reported here on Garcia’s May 2022 guilty plea.
The DOJ did not provide an explanation for the long delay in Garcia’s sentencing. In May 2023, Garcia was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation by the court.
“The potential for panic and trampling and death is incredible… Hate is hate, whether it is impacted by mental health or not,” U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said at the sentencing hearing, according to the DOJ.
Prosecutors say Garcia was driven by his anger over his homelessness and tried to set fire to the Pike/Pine gay bar in February, 2020. Continue reading →
Katy Knauff and Marceil Van Camp (Image: Kamp Social House)
When it comes to growing into your place as a neighborhood hangout, identity is important. Kamp Social House is experimenting with its identity in Madison Valley.
“We were just finding that there were certain nights where it’s like, this is a restaurant full of lesbians, like everybody in here is queer,” Marceil Van Camp tells CHS. “I truly think it’s just that openness that allows for others to know that it’s a space where you can just sit at the bar.”
Van Camp and her wife, Katy Knauff, moved to Seattle from Long Beach in 2019 and fell in love with the Seattle food scene. Knauff is a lifelong restaurateur with 17 years of experience. Van Camp left a career in tech sales. The couple began looking for restaurant locations but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and they put a pause in it. By the summer of 2022, Kamp Social House opened its doors in the space formerly home to neighborhood mainstay Luc. In the beginning, it emphasized Madison Valley and being “sober curious”-friendly as its leading attributes.
Van Camp said she and Knauff are very loud, open, and unapologetically proud about their love and business story which helps with make it a welcoming space for all.
The first lesbian dance nights at Kamp started this Pride. The overarching goal was to hold dance parties while celebrating queer love. The parties took place on Mondays because those were the queerest of nights at Kamp during summer. On the first night, Van Camp said that the line to enter was out the door, and she knew that Kamp had connected with something. Continue reading →
Another Capitol Hill Pride has come and gone but let’s soak up a little more of the celebratory vibes and causes of June 2023 in the neighborhood’s annual festivities and rallies. Here is what it looked like on Broadway. And here is it what looked like in Volunteer Park as the Seattle Dyke March started on its path to a new era for the annual event.
CHS reported on the changes for the Dyke March as organizers looked to a new focus for the event beyond the annual march while also hoping to establish a new home for the gathering. Continue reading →
Last year, Pride returned to its rightful space on Capitol Hill with a restoration of June celebrations on Broadway and in Cal Anderson Park after two years of pandemic delays and cancellations.
This weekend, Capitol Hill Pride jumped forward, catching up with past turnout — and then some — for the celebration of love and freedom on Capitol Hill with PrideFest filling Broadway and the park with vendor tents, tables, and activities organized by members of the community and local businesses honoring acceptance and inclusivity.
Bars and restaurants shared the streets with District 3 candidates and temporary tattoo vendors. Between the Broadway crowds and the weekend parties across the Hill and Pike/Pine, some businesses did a pandemic year’s worth of business on the weekend. But the receipts were surpassed by the vibes.
Ten years after the firstTrans Pride Seattle marched into Cal Anderson Park, veterans from that June night in 2013 and first-timers joined hundreds of people in Capitol Hill’s Volunteer Park to represent the strength of the city’s TwoSpirit, Trans and Gender Diverse community and allies.
“For 10 years, we’ve never let anything stop us from celebrating Trans joy, life, and love—and this year is no different!,” the organizers at the Gender Justice League wrote. “In a year of 450+ proposed anti-trans bills, spaces like Trans Pride Seattle are more important than ever. TPS continues to honor and carry the torch of our transcestors who created Pride as a means of cultural communion and social dissent.” Continue reading →
A history of queer nightlife at Pine and Boylston will continue with a new future for the corner’s three-story, 106-year-old building where R Place once ruled.
Massive will be an “avant-garde club catering to the queer, allied and music-focused community” embracing “an electrifying fusion of underground dance music, captivating performances, and visionary shows,” the backers of the new club said in a Seattle Pride week announcement.
Music site Resident Advisorwas first to report on the new project with statements from the Massive team of music and event promoter Kevin Kauer, designer Emi Vega, and the building’s owner and restaurant entrepreneur Tam Nguyen of the Tamarind Tree Restaurant Group.
“We intend to take advantage of all three floors on a regular basis, and involve many different queer artists, musicians and performers over time,” the Massive statement reported by Resident Advisor reads. “It’s most important to know that we are here for everyone, and we will be a platform for queer performers to thrive and grow, without taking any ownership or control over their art form.” Continue reading →
The green roof is covered with vegetation and solar panels
There is another type of important Pride event happening this week on Capitol Hill.
Thursday, the application process for new Broadway affordable senior housing development Pride Place opened to interested residents. Move-ins are expected to begin in September. Hundreds are expected to apply for one of the building’s 118 studio and one-bedroom units neighboring queer dance club Neighbours.
Calling its project “affordable, affirming housing for LGBTQIA+ seniors in the heart of Capitol Hill, Seattle,” developer Community Roots Housing says it is working with community partner GenPride to put the final touches on the building this summer. Continue reading →
