Author Archives: peterallenclark

With ‘grassroots spirit,’ Summit Block Party grows into third year — Year 4? Who knows!

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2013's SBP -- more pictures here (Image: CHS)

2013’s SBP — more pictures here (Image: CHS)

(Image: CHS)

(Image: CHS)

In its third year, this weekend’s Summit Block Party has talked its neighbors into an uncertain future.

The free event returns bigger than ever this Saturday, August 9th with two band-filled stages, barbecue, live art, local vendors, raffle prizes and more. Closing Summit between E Olive and Howell, the festivities begin at 11 AM and go on until 9:30 at night.

“It started mostly on a whim,” founder Adair Tudor tells CHS. “I was really enamored with the block and really enjoyed seeing how it had a great sense of community. I thought, ‘Yeah, let’s just have a block party.'”

The second year provided Tudor with a chance to expand the event so she added a second stage and a larger crowd came with it. Though she said she doesn’t know what kind of turnout to expect this year, she and fellow organizer Adam Way have had to do a fair bit of outreach to keep the locals involved and accommodating.

“There was a weird amount of tension there for a second,” Way said. “We just talked it out with them and I think it’s in a positive place now. I think it’s going to be great.” Continue reading →

Block Party faces its future in a developing Capitol Hill

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(Image: Alex Crick for CHS)

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Capitol Hill Block Party wants to keep the heart of the neighborhood alive as so much of it changes.

In its 18th year, the weekend event which closes down six blocks of Pike/Pine and draws upward of 30,000 music lovers remains an annual subject of excitement from fans and the rarest of summer musical festival beasts: a three-day commercial concert venue carved out of a living, breathing city neighborhood.

With A$AP Rocky, Chromeo and Spoon headlining this year, rock fest tourists and plenty of locals will once again swarm the cordoned-off area in the heart of Pike/Pine starting July 25 for a weekend of sights, sounds and selling your soul for a parking space.

Only in America
Owner Jason Lajeunesse has not needed the Capitol Hill Block Party to make his mark on the neighborhood. CHS dubbed him one of the ‘Princes of Pike/Pine’ — along with business partner and frequent collaborator David Meinert — due to his extensive stakes in many nearby restaurants and venues, including Neumos and Lost Lake.

After spending nine years planning the Block Party’s music as co-producer, Lajeunesse took ownership of the event in 2012.

He believes Capitol Hill Block Party is a product of the neighborhood which gives it its name.

“I think it’s important to promote the neighborhood year round,” he said. “The Block Party sort of grew with the local and regional bands. As the bands got bigger, so did the Block Party.”

With four indoor venues, two outdoor stages and dozens of restaurants and bars in the area, the Block Party has the distinction of being the only event of its kind in America.

“To our knowledge Capitol Hill Block Party is unique as the only ticketed three-day street festival in the country,” Chris Swenson, program manager with the Seattle Office of Film and Music, said. “It’s a little like scooping up half of Sasquatch and plopping it in the middle of a neighborhood for a weekend. The city’s primary concern is safety and, because of the unique layout of the event, each year safety officials and agencies spend many months establishing organizer requirements and emergency plans specific to the site.” Continue reading →

With fundraising victory, Cappy’s Boxing Gym not going down without a fight

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Ravel Scheiner eyes her rival during a training session at Cappy’s Boxing Gym. (Photo: Peter Allen Clark)


Ravel Scheiner eyes her rival during a training session at Cappy’s Boxing Gym. (Photo: Peter Allen Clark)

After nearly 15 years of supporting Central Seattle’s boxing community, Cappy’s Boxing Gym asked for some online help in return. This summer, they go it.

After facing some recent financial setbacks, owner Cappy Kotz said his 22nd and E Union gym had joined a long line of businesses which have found the raised rents and changing social dynamics of Capitol Hill and the Central District difficult to weather.

So, in order to expand the business and prepare for the future, Cappy’s Boxing Gym began an Indiegogo fundraising project on June 1. The campaign asked for $15,000 to help “continue to produce Olympic caliber athletes and transform lives,” with much of the money going towards marketing. Last week, donors answered the call, raising just over $15,000 well before the July 1st deadline. Coach Ann Bailey said she was overwhelmed with the response.

“We kind of knew something special was happening,” Bailey said. “We were really moved by what people had to say about our gym.” Continue reading →

91-year-old Capitol Hill photographer makes Seattle skyline his muse

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IMG_7876“I like to work more than I like vacationing,” 91-year-old Rich Mann said, and he can provide loads of evidence to support it. However, the Capitol Hill resident also makes his lifetime of work sound like a great deal of fun.

This month, he joins three other artists to present an exhibition called A Photopolis. Running through June 29 at South Lake Union’s A/NT, A Non-Traditional Art Galley, the exhibition will feature over 70 works of artistic photography and panoramas.

A highlight of the event will be Mann’s eight-feet long panorama of a Seattle sunset, which King County selected for public display in a photo mural contest this year.

Mann’s deeper interest in photography set in when he moved to Los Angeles in a trip with high school friends that never ended. He took photography classes in the evening, joined a camera club and eventually opened his own small studio space. Over the years, he experimented with just about every form of photography.

“I tried weddings for a while, but I didn’t like doing that at all,” he said.

Mann didn’t take to the future of the medium right away.

“When digital first came in, I turned my nose up,” he said. “I thought, ‘what kind of crap is this?’ And it was crap in the beginning.”

However, when Mann moved to Seattle in the autumn of 2010 he was introduced to the Photo Center NW by his son. Continue reading →