A Monday final meeting of Mayor Katie Wilson’s “Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy” transition team has “sold out.”
Monday’s public session at First Hill’s Town Hall Seattle has seen all free tickets claimed. A standby queue will be formed at the venue’s west entrance. Continue reading
Ayers (Image: SHe Said)
In 2012, musician Jen Ayers’ husband, Graham, came out as transgender.
The two had been together since meeting at their 1988 college orientation, later performing in bands and starting a family together.
This life-changing event sparked many questions about what it meant for them as individuals, as a couple, and as parents. The only way Ayers could find answers was by making music and, eventually, writing the full-length musical SHe Said, which will have its world premiere at Capitol Hill’s Erickson Theatre from January 14 through February 1 as part of Intiman Theatre’s 2025-2026 season.
“When I am trying to figure something out, process something, or don’t understand something, my go-to in life is often to sit at the piano, make music, and write songs,” said Ayers. “The first seedling of a song that led to this musical today probably started the morning after Graham came to this discovery.”
SHe Said’s journey from Ayers’ piano bench at home to Intiman Theatre’s stage spans more than a decade, with private workshops at The Royal Room and Seattle Rep, a four-night run of public performances at Broadway Performance Hall, and numerous re-writes. Ayers also released a double album of SHe Said songs in 2022.
Billed as an ageless, transformational love story akin to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Ayers’ musical explores the impact of gender identity on a family and a couple who transition together, changing the way one thinks about what it means to love.
This world-premiere iteration at Intiman Theatre features an immersive stage that resembles a nightclub lounge, complete with cabaret-style tables offering cocktail service to audience members and traditional theater seating. Ayers, who sings and plays piano, is backed by guitarists R. L. Heyer and Kathy Moore, bassist Rebecca Young, keyboardist Melissa Montalto, and drummer Geoff Redding.
“I could not be more thrilled to do this run with Intiman,” said Ayers. “They are just really the right fit for this piece. Part of their ethos is to bring work to the stage that’s brave. They support the LGBTQ community. They are fierce protectors of art and artists. I’m honored they want to bring this show to their stage.”
Ayers recently spoke to CHS about the long, personal journey that brought SHe Said to the stage.
Are there one or two specific things that you really want audiences to take away from SHe Said?
Our tagline for this show is, “Love wins.” People change. Circumstances change. We’re all out there weathering storms in our lives, and it’s love that ultimately carries us through those times. Also, the importance of being your truest self, for humans to accept and embrace each other’s most authentic selves, which brings us back full circle to love. It’s a love story. What we talk about in this show are universal themes. You don’t have to have a trans partner to experience what it’s like to love someone and for them to change, or for you to realize you’re changing. These are things we all experience as humans. Continue reading
Pepe Montero will become the permanent executive director (Image: Hugo House)
Capitol Hill literary arts center Hugo House announced a new leader this week. The 11th Ave nonprofit announced Pepe Montero has accepted the position of permanent executive director.
The appointment marks the culmination of what it says has been an eighteen-month recovery period for the Capitol Hill literary center, which narrowly avoided permanent closure in early 2024.
“The path to this announcement began during one of the most difficult chapters in Hugo House’s history,” the announcement reads. “We found ourselves with a mostly new board and a completely overwhelming question: who could we get to run the place?”
The transition from interim to permanent leadership comes after a challenging period for the arts organization. CHS reported here in early 2024 as its then-director resigned amid ongoing challenges.
Hugo House was founded in 1996 and had been well-positioned among Capitol Hill and the city’s strongest arts nonprofits. In 2018, it opened its new 9,600-square-foot writing center on the ground floor of the new mixed-use apartment building developed on the corner Hugo House has called home since the late 1990s. Continue reading
(Image: STG at Kerry Hall)
By Domenic Strazzabosco
A year after the $6 million deal to add the historic Capitol Hill performance space to the family of Seattle venues including the Paramount, the Moore, and the Neptune, STG at Kerry Hall is holding a grand opening party this weekend.
The free Saturday, November 15th event will celebrate the Seattle Theater Group’s new addition. It’s an excellent opportunity for neighbors to stop through to see how the new life for the diverse, artistic space is taking shape.
“Kerry Hall is starting to come to life,” said Marisol Sanchez Best, STG’s Director of Education & Community Engagement. “Now, the big job is to let everyone know the building is available for them to come and utilize it as a creative space.”
STG put the E Roy just off northern Broadway building and studios into motion almost immediately after purchasing the 104-year-old property as Cornish College of the Arts severed its final ties to the neighborhood.
The move preserved the historic building Nellie Cornish once called home for a new generation of Seattle artists while giving STG a home for rehearsals and its educational programs as well as opportunities for smaller performance spaces.
STG’s success in Kerry Hall could be a hopeful good sign for another historic Capitol Hill venue. CHS reported here on Seattle Central’s search for new partners to put E Pine’s Egyptian Theater back in the movie business after SIFF’s exit from Capitol Hill.
Saturday at Kerry Hall, after a ribbon-cutting to kick off the event, attendees will be welcomed to walk through the historic building and observe or participate in the many activities and workshops planned while also enjoying a slate of performances. There will be a food truck as well. Continue reading
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (Image: Dorothy Edwards)
One recent Sunday evening, writer and queer activist Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore was walking from her home near the Capitol Hill branch of Seattle Public Library and toward Volunteer Park when she spotted one of the neighborhood’s ubiquitous feral rabbits.
“Look at that cute rabbit,” she said, delighted by the small creature as it scurried along the sidewalk toward the protection of a row of hedges. “The rabbits are the best thing that’s happened to us in the last five years. They came right with the pandemic, too. I mean, we’ve always had rabbits, but you might have seen one a week, if you were lucky. Now, you might see ten a night.”
Neighborhood walks are essential to Sycamore’s creativity. This was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, a productive period when she wrote two books that proved popular among readers and critics. So, when the opportunity arose to interview Sycamore for CHS, it made sense to do so while on one of her regular neighborhood walks. Continue reading
The Egyptian (Image: CHS)
The screen at The Egyptian hopefully won’t stay dark much longer.
A spokesperson for Seattle Central College that owns the 110-year-old former Masonic Temple building the movie theater calls home says the Capitol Hill school is currently “reviewing applications for short-term rentals and long-term leases of the Egyptian.” Continue reading
(Images: Eleven : Eleven)
(Image: On the Block)
There will soon be a new space for everyone on 11th Ave.
All-ages venue Eleven : Eleven is now under construction in a former nightclub space.
Eleven : Eleven is backed by the group of artists and business owners who have fostered the On the Block series of 11th Ave street fairs led by Carolyn Hitt of Blue Cone Studios, artist and organizer Julie Chang Schulman, Rialto “Rio” Estolas of Throwbacks Northwest, and Diana Adams whose Vermillion art bar will have a new neighbor in the all-ages venue.
The group calls the new project “A Place for Impossible Things” and says it will be shaped as “a creative & cultural small business incubator, sober-curious gathering space.”
The new venue at 1512 11th Ave will open for an early preview Thursday night as part of this month’s Capitol Hill Art Walk. Continue reading
Che Sehyun
While the neighborhood braces for some most unwanted visitors at Cal Anderson later this month, this coming weekend will bring a more soul nourishing event to the popular Capitol Hill park.
Seattle artist Che Sehyun is bringing a new The Future Ancient project to Capitol Hill Sunday for a day of community kimchi making, music, performances, foods, creative activities, and even massage and acupuncture. Make plans to be part of the first Kimchi Life Festival:
Kimchi Life honors, uplifts and shares ancient Indigenous Corean cultural technology, ceremony and consciousness to help support an indigenous future in which all people thrive with peace and dignity, in good relation to each other and the natural world. We feature international master artist and Indigenous Corean culture bearer Kim Bong Jun, local Corean artist Bird Over Mountain who will rap their Kimchi Song, Ancient African stories from Malian Jelli / Griot, Ibrahim Arsalan, local Hip Hop Artists Ascended Reality and Beatbox Panda and Michone’s Caribbean food and more!
While the battle to keep Denny Blaine nude is playing out in court, members of the queer and nudist communities that love and utilize the park have continued to visit the popular beach this summer.
In a city where developers and wealthy NIMBYs seem to be nearly constantly scheming to carve up public space for private gain, revolutionary energy is also bubbling up at Denny Blaine in the form of puppets, nudity, and unapologetic queer defiance.
This weekend, guerrilla performances transformed the lakeside park into a stage for radical satire, bodily liberation, and a middle finger to privatization. The shows were part absurdist comedy, part scathing political critique, and directed their ire at figures like Stuart Sloan, the wealthy neighbor who has spent years trying to sanitize Denny Blaine, and Mayor Bruce Harrell’s laughably inept attempts to placate the NIMBYs.
One performance swung between nostalgia for freer times and biting commentary on whose bodies get to take up space. “These are my boobies!” declared an actor, fully nude except for a top hat. It was cheeky but the message hit home. Freedom has some rough edges — and the battle isn’t done. Continue reading
(Image: Love City Love)
(Image: Love City Love)
A Capitol Hill street living in limbo awaiting a wave of redevelopment.
An arts venue that has made its way through the liminal spaces created by the neighborhood’s relentless change.
It’s the perfect match.
You can add the everything you need and more spirit of dearly departed neighborhood convenience store ShopRite to the mix.
LOVECITYLOVE has landed on 15th Ave E.
The nomadic arts venture that has made its home in a variety of soon-to-be-demolished, destined-for-redeveloped storefronts across Capitol Hill and Seattle is now resident at 15th and Republican in the emptied out cornershop where ShopRite served the neighborhood for 30 years.
It is beginning its days on this new corner of the Hill with a schedule of open mics, sewing classes, and cafe hours. Continue reading
