hen planning this week’s issue highlighting the new “ART U.S.A.” EXHIBITION at Gonzaga’s Jundt Art Museum, I knew as soon as I saw it that Jane Dunning Baldwin’s (19081991) watercolor painting of a serene winter setting would be perfect to showcase on the cover. “First Snow,” created in 1940, is not only seasonally fitting (despite the region’s lower elevations having seen hardly any snow this winter), but apt because Baldwin is a perhaps a lesserknown Spokane artist who played an important role in the city’s mid-20th century art scene. She was a teacher at the short-lived Spokane Art Center, a project of the Depression Era’s Works Progress Administration, and continued to be involved in arts education throughout her life. The Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture has 60 of Baldwin’s pieces in its permanent collection.
This particular watercolor was likely created during a class Baldwin took from another prominent Spokane artist, Z. Vanessa Helder, who’s also featured in “Art U.S.A.” Read more about the exhibition and some of its featured artists starting on page 22.
— CHEY SCOTT, Editor
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DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE MEMORY OF PLAYING VIDEO GAMES WITH YOUR
FAMILY?
RICHARD HUSK
We were sitting around playing Mortal Kombat with folks, and we had some family friends over, and one of them was repeatedly using the same silly move and mopping the floor with everybody. Then my dad got home from work, showed up with his hands still rusty, and just blitzed him flawlessly, down to having the fatality memorized and everything.
MATTHEW HELGET
I have multiple memories of playing video games and always playing sports games on the Xbox Kinect on the weekends, like playing golf, bowling, and just having fun with my family after school. I absolutely loved it, especially when my dad decided it would be fun just to goof around while we were all trying to bowl by trying to mess everyone up.
DANI LIBBE
Yeah, one year, we got a Wii for Christmas with Wii Sports and a bunch of other games. We continued playing that game from about 5 am on Christmas Day until about 6 pm the following evening. So, I spent over 24 hours playing Wii Sports with my family.
MICHAEL GROFF
Yeah, one time when I was little, I was 8 or 7 years old, somewhere in that range. My brother lived in an apartment separate from us because he’s a lot older than me… He came over with the Xbox for some family event, which was one of my favorite memories. I played Plants vs. Zombies on the Xbox with my brother in the living room. There was something magical about that moment.
CHRISTIAN HENDRICKX
So, growing up, my brother and I would play Star Wars: Battlefront 2, and that was our main bonding activity together. We would get out of school, get home, fire up the PlayStation and play Battlefront until we were yelled at to get off.
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Lose the Weight Shaming
As get-in-shape season hits, a call for sensitivity around body image, cultural expectations and those multitudes who struggle with both
BY CMARIE FUHRMAN
“FIRST OFF,” my friend wrote when I shared a picture of myself — almost 53, in wide-leg pants and a semi-cropped top — that relatives had deemed age-inappropriate and “fattening,” “You know as well as I do that body comments should be off limits.” I’d sent the photo to a group chat of women friends, my lifeline for both difficult moments and celebrations others might not understand. We lift each other up, a shared pulse of sanity in a culture that often tells us we’re wrong.
As the New Year arrived, the first messages I received — even before 2025 officially began — were about my body: unsolicited promises of finally achieving my “dream” physique, offers of minimally invasive surgeries to “suck some of me out,” advice on looking younger, dressing thinner, lifting my “saggy” breasts. I instinctively pulled my thick sweater tighter around me, as if those messages could see me, were busy judging me.
I was a fat kid. I was a fat 20-something. That was the word given me by those who appointed themselves my judges. The kids who teased, adults with backhanded comments, “You would be so pretty if...” I learned to abhor mirrors — those on walls, in the eyes and mouths of others, those projected from screens, magazines and billboards. They were unavoidable. I have forgotten some of the sweeter moments of growing, but I have never forgotten the comments: “What’s it like to be so fat?” “Can you even cross your legs?” The nicknames — Thunder Thighs, Tonka Tits, Walrus Woman — hateful alliteration. Kids can be cruel, I know. They find ways to tease no matter. But perhaps they learn from cruel adults. In my 20s, while riding my bike along a river one spring afternoon, trying to “get in shape,” a grown man in cycling wear, leading a group of other bikers passed and muttered, “Poor bike.”
lost the weight, you should know. I lost a whole human. Not at first because I wanted to get healthy, but to stop being teased. To fit in. I wanted to sleep with a man who didn’t say afterward that I should get a gym membership. I
did extraordinarily unkind things to my body: extreme workouts, diets that included advice to eat toilet paper (yes, you read that right), fasting and cutting out all carbs before either were cool. I would have had surgeries and suction, but I was as poor as I was desperate, so all of my initiatives were self-induced.
Shame was my motivation. It should have been kindness — learning to care for this body, this home of my soul. There was no education. The role models weren’t the right kind of role models. They were modeling shame and punishment rather than love and care for my body. The kind of love that would have equaled care.
This need to fit in, to be “healthy” led to first a degree and then a career in fitness. A decade later, I was, to the outside world, the picture of fitness. But I wasn’t healthy. And still the comments came: My muscular arms were “man arms,” my calves needed “more work,” I should get surgeries for the stretch marks, the extra skin, the scars on my face. And then there were the other comments — women, you know them — the ones that terrify, that make us long for the protective layers we may have built in the first place.
If you don’t know by now, you should: People gain weight for myriad reasons. My fitness career focused on working with those the medical community shamed with the label “morbidly obese.” Working with these individuals affirmed what I already knew: Each person’s relationship with food is complex, complicated and unique. And despite the constant barrage of information about “normal weight” and “best diets,” there is no such thing. But despite all of this, the body is still not a place for public comment.
“…each
person’s relationship with food is complex, complicated and unique.”
In an early attempt to find sanity with food, I joined a support group — a place for those whose relationship with eating had become a destructive force. In one of my first meetings, someone said, “At least food can’t kill you like alcohol.” Oh, friends. It can. The number of young women and men who have died from eating disorders — bulimia, anorexia, binging and purging, starvation — is staggering. Surgeries, fad diets (like the TikTok trend of walking 9 miles a day, eating only fruit and vegetables, or only meat, five-day cleanses topped off with a sludge of cayenne, lemon juice, and maple syrup), the pervasive shame and pressure — it never stops.
I’d love to tell you that I no longer look in the mirror and see a body that this culture rejects. Or that I don’t have moments when I want to disappear, when I remember the four-hour workouts and drastic caloric restrictions that once dropped 10 pounds in a week — and landed me in the hospital — and think, maybe I could do that again. I still click on ads that promise to give me that body I had at 30, even though I know that it is all mostly empty, mostly bullshit, and even worse a way to make someone money. But I also have the therapist bills that prove the work I have done to understand my relationship with food and my body. Shelves of books about body acceptance, images of real, diverse bodies, TV shows that reflect a range of shapes and sizes. And I have a partner who never comments on bodies — his, mine, or anyone else’s — except to commiserate about the shared aches of aging.
And I have this group of friends to anchor me when the shame comes roaring back from the mouths and words of others. They remind me — and all of us — that body comments are off-limits. And when I need that reminder most, I have a pink sweater we share among us. It’s a superhero cape, a tangible reminder of connection and self-acceptance. It keeps all of me safe. It always fits, and when I need it to, makes me feel invincible. Because ultimately, our bodies are our own, and no one else’s to judge. n
CMarie Fuhrman is the author of Salmon Weather: Writing from the Land of No Return (forthcoming), Camped Beneath the Dam, and co-editor of two anthologies, Cascadia Field Guide and Native Voices: Indigenous Poetry, Craft, and Conversations. Fuhrman is the associate director of the graduate program in creative writing at Western Colorado University. She resides in West Central Idaho.
NOW YOU SEE ME
A sanctioned homeless camp in Colville is closing, but there’s nowhere for residents to go. Does the city expect them to disappear?
BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM
There’s a tall chain link fence around the homeless camp in Colville, with green privacy slats somewhat blocking the view to or from the busy street on the other side.
Though, as camp resident James Summers says, you can still see through it if you try to look.
“It’s no different [here] than on the other side of the fence,” he says.
The 1-acre camp off Louis Perras Road was created by the city of Colville in October 2022 to give people without homes a designated place to live. It’s lined with gravel and has a water spigot and a few porta potties near the entrance.
The city will close the camp by October this year, now that federal case law no longer deems alternative shelter spaces necessary before cities can enforce local anti-camping laws.
But with no affordable housing options or shelter space available in rural Stevens County, residents and service providers are all asking the same question: Where are people supposed to go?
“I feel like wherever we go, they’re gonna tell us to move,” says Beverly Arbuckle.
The 63-year-old owns her own trailer and has parked it at the camp since it opened. But she has no way to move it, and nowhere to park it if she could.
“I do better in my own home. It’d be a shame to give up my trailer,” she says.
There were close to 40 people living at the camp before its closure was announced in October. Now it’s down to about 20 people, Colville Mayor Jack Smith
says. He doesn’t know where most of them have gone.
“A surprising number just leave,” Smith says. “We do our best to document, but most people leave the camp and don’t tell us where they’re going.”
People without permanent homes will often slip back into remote places where they won’t be harassed by police but where they’re farther from resources they need, says Teresa Lang, executive director of the Hope Street Rest Stop, a day service provider and gathering place in Colville.
The camp is just a visible “tip of the iceberg” so far as the real number of people struggling with housing instability in Stevens County, says local Dr. Barry Bacon. Bacon founded the nonprofit Hope Street to serve people without homes. He likens living without a home to “living in a war zone.”
“The difference in life expectancy [between] housed versus unhoused, the latest studies are saying, is 27 years,” Bacon says. “There isn’t anything else like that. Smoking doesn’t do that. Alcohol doesn’t do that. Lack of housing does — it’s deadly.”
Rural Resources, a nonprofit providing wraparound services in housing, nutrition, employment and victim services, estimates that there are about 80 people without homes in Stevens County. Bacon says Hope Street has served as many as 250 unique individuals in one year (in 2016, their first year of operation).
Regardless, the city’s camp has not been a home for the majority of homeless people in the county.
“There are still a bunch of homeless who don’t live here,” camp resident Summers says.
Cruze Thompson, the housing director for Rural
Resources who has tried to ease homelessness in Stevens County for a decade, agrees.
“Before the first camp over here, homelessness was invisible,” he says. “I assume once the camp is gone and homelessness is invisible again, the homeless problem will just be forgotten again.”
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
In 2018, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decided in Martin v. Boise that cities could not enforce anti-camping laws if there weren’t enough shelter beds for people with nowhere else to go.
Colville Mayor Smith says he saw an increase in homelessness on the streets of Colville in 2021. The Stevens County Board of Commissioners then loaned Colville about $120,000 from the county’s homeless fund to create a solution. A designated camping spot “was the only idea we could come up with,” Smith says.
Rural Resources Chief Executive Officer Bryan Raines disagrees that it was the only option suggested.
“I think a better approach would be to stabilize folks, which is what we do with the shelter space we operate,” he says, referring to Rural Resources’ two indoor shelters in Stevens County. “Then, start looking at that transitional housing piece and moving people into more permanent supportive housing, which is really where I think we can see successes from the work we do.”
Raines says the city did not include Rural Resources in its decisionmaking process.
The city moved forward with the camp, and it “seemed to work, to some extent,” Smith says, by concentrating homeless people in one area.
“Mainly, it’s a place where if you want to take advantage of services, you can,” he says.
But last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned
Scott Bishop has been living in the Colville homeless camp for a few months. He’s a mobile handyman and mechanic. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
$165,000 Countdown to a Cadillac Giveaway
“NOW
Martin v. Boise with its decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson. The court stated that the “enforcement of generally applicable laws regulating camping on public property does not constitute ‘cruel and unusual punishment’” regardless of whether there are other places to be or not.
After the Supreme Court’s decision, Colville “changed ordinances back to be in concert with that,” Smith says. “The deal we made when I sold this to the public was that we need this as long as these judicial decisions are in effect.”
The city planned to spend about $80,000 of the money from the county to open and maintain the camp for up to 10 years.
When Martin v. Boise was overturned, so was the city’s commitment to the camp. Smith says the city will try to pay the entire loan back.
The closure will take place over nine months, which the mayor says is “reasonable for the people who are there.” On Jan. 1, the camp stopped accepting new residents. On April 1, departure notices will be distributed, and on Oct.1, the camp will officially be closed.
According to Thompson from Rural Resources, there are 19 shelter beds in Stevens County, not counting a crisis pregnancy center or a volunteer-run warming shelter that’s sometimes open during the cold months. In a county with just over 40,000 residents in an area larger than Delaware, all 19 beds are already occupied.
Catholic Charities and Rural Resources are partnering to build the Colville Safe Haven, with 70 affordable housing units for low-income or homeless families. Even though the project isn’t scheduled to be finished until later this year, all units are already spoken for, Raines
says. It’s not an option for people leaving the camp.
The new housing is a great thing for the community, he says, but the fact that it’s already full speaks to the sheer number of community members experiencing housing instability.
“I think we all probably grew up with kids [who said,] ‘Oh, I live in my grandparents’ house with my mom or dad.’ It was just kind of common in this area,” Raines says. “I didn’t consider them not stabilized with housing.”
But it’s those people who are at risk for homelessness. With the lack of affordable housing in the area, they’re also the ones competing for a unit at a place like Colville Safe Haven.
“The majority of homeless in our rural county is not something anyone sees, hears or talks about,” Thompson says. “It’s the mom with a couple kids in high school, or the family whose house just burnt down, or one of the parents lost their job and they can no longer pay so they’re choosing to sleep in their car because they didn’t want to go through the eviction process. What you see in the camp is a stereotype, but there’s so many more outside that stereotype.”
BUILDING BELONGING
The house at 640 N. Elm St., just north of downtown Colville, is almost 120 years old. Three years ago, it was falling apart.
Now, complete with refurbished hardwood floors, crown molding and custom countertops, it’s on the market for $825,000.
The newly beautiful home is thanks to Hope Street Restoration, a new extension of Hope Street run by Bacon’s wife, Shelley, who employs homeless people to preserve and beautify Colville’s current housing stock.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING.
And the time is now at Fairwinds.
From our signature program, PrimeFit Wellness, to a community calendar filled with activities, it’s the perfect time to start your tomorrow, today.
Join us for our Open House Event on February 7th, 2:00–5:00 pm. Call 509-778-5659 to RSVP or for more information.
Shelley is a life coach, job coach, mom and cheerleader, expecting her paid employees to be sober, on time, respectful and respected.
Flipping craftsman homes and selling them at market rate doesn’t provide housing to Hope Street Restoration’s homeless employees. But in addition to providing job skills, Shelley hopes it will help build rapport with the community, who will hopefully recognize the homebuilders as community members worthy of homes themselves.
“They become family. They become your people,” she says. “They respond to the way you treat them with dignity.”
The Bacons are trying to fortify a pathway out of homelessness, providing basic food and hygiene needs at the Rest Stop, then moving people into clean and sober shelters, then offering job training through Hope Street Restoration, then hopefully moving people to more permanent employment and housing that has yet to be created.
But it’s too big a job for one organization.
“There are gaps all the way along that path that are not being built,” Barry Bacon says. “We feel like the city leadership and the county leadership really need to work on solutions alongside us.”
Service providers from Hope Street, NEW Alliance Behavioral Health and Rural Resources work alongside each other on the ground, though there’s little formal coordination between the different organizations.
Rural Resources receives money from the Stevens County homeless fund. But it just lost the modest funding it had been receiving for almost four decades from the city of Colville that went toward the organization’s victim services and child advocacy division.
Hope Street has received funding from the Stevens County homeless fund once — $14,000 for the permits
520 E Holland Ave | Spokane, WA 99218 | 509-778-5659
for a new sober shelter called Patrick’s Place that Hope Street is planning.
Both Raines and Bacon think collaboration is key to addressing homelessness effectively.
“It’s more solvable here if you can get folks to work in the same direction and come up with some really common sense solutions,” Raines says. “Things like having a housing project go up. ... It can be challenging to push through some of these projects.”
Geno Krager grew up in Colville and has been staying at the camp there for two years. He’s been waiting for housing the entire time.
“I don’t have a vehicle, so I need to be close to town for my appointments,” he says. “It can take a few years to find something like that.”
He owns a motorhome but can’t find a place to park it.
“Everybody thinks this homelessness thing’s contagious,” he says. “You get scared trying to figure out what to do because you have nowhere to go.” n
elizab@inlander.com
NAPOLEON
“I’m a nervous wreck about it,” camp resident Beverly Arbuckle says of the closure. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
School Shuffle
Newly rebranded Spokane Colleges to move out of U-District building purchased by Spokane Public Schools, as each organization consolidates
BY COLTON RASANEN
Last year, Spokane voters rejected Spokane Public Schools’ $200 million bond, which would have funded school replacements and updates at some of the oldest buildings in the district. While other school districts in the region opted to rerun their bonds in November — Cheney Public Schools passed its bond on the second attempt, while Deer Park and Lakeland joint school districts’ efforts failed again — the Spokane School Board decided to wait.
Though the bond’s failure caused the district to reconsider how it presents future funding asks, it also presented an opportunity that the bond would not have paid for, had it been passed. Last month, the SPS Board made the unanimous decision to buy a building in the city’s University District from the Community Colleges of Spokane Foundation.
“With the bond not passing, we had to start over. If it had passed, I don’t know that we would be looking at this purchase,” Spokane School Board President Nikki Otero Lockwood says. “To build a new school, or even to build a new [administrative] building, it’s $50-$60 million. This building is just $12.2 million.”
The district’s move to its newly purchased five-story building at 501 N. Riverpoint Blvd. is still years away, but the intention behind the acquisition is to consolidate its administrative footprint.
“That building went up for sale, and it was of interest for a couple of reasons. I think the Superintendent [Adam Swinyard] is always looking at how to update our facilities, and he’s thinking of consolidation, too,” Otero Lockwood
says. “For those two reasons, he thought that might be a good fit for us, and it will be a cost savings.”
Those cost-savings intrigued the School Board, she says. With the intent to house administrative staff in the Riverpoint building, the district eventually plans to sell its current administrative building and parking lot at 200 N. Bernard St. While it’ll take a few years for the district to move into the purchased building, it’ll be able to collect revenue from the current Riverpoint tenants, including the Community Colleges of Spokane and a few other businesses.
The district could also eventually move the Community School, which operates in an old elementary school building at 1025 W. Spofford Ave., into the U-District building.
“You know, we didn’t pass the bond, and even if we did, we weren’t able to meet the request of the Community School in particular to have a building within the U-District community. [It] just wasn’t within the scope of what we could do with the bond,” Otero Lockwood says. “[The Community School is] in an old elementary school facility, and it does not fit a 21st century learning environment for a project-based school. To be nested in with higher education is good access and proximity for our students there as well.”
Otero Lockwood emphasizes that no formal decisions have been made about what will go into the new building, and she says that the School Board will make those choices after hearing input from the community. (She says that public input will likely occur in a February meeting.)
‘REDUCE OUR FOOTPRINT’
As Spokane Public Schools prepares to take up residence at 501 N. Riverpoint Blvd. in the next few years, the Community Colleges of Spokane is working to reduce its administrative footprint amid a strategic rebrand. To do that, it’ll move out of the Riverpoint building it leased from the Community Colleges of Spokane Foundation (before the sale to the school district).
“We lease a major portion of the building from the foundation, so when I became chancellor close to two years ago now, one of the decisions I made was the idea to try to reduce the cost of leases that we have, as well as reduce our footprint,” Community Colleges of Spokane Chancellor Kevin Brockbank says.
At its core, the choice to move out of the building presents cost savings. According to Brockbank, the Community Colleges of Spokane, which oversees Spokane Community College, or SCC, and Spokane Falls Community College, or SFCC, will see its operating costs reduced by more than $500,000 per year.
However, beyond cost savings Brockbank argues that the location in the U-District has no tangible benefits for the community colleges.
“This building has served as a place to meet and to do business, but what it unfortunately doesn’t do is it doesn’t serve students,” Brockbank explains. “I’ve said this over and over again that one of the real great benefits about working at a college is being on a college campus. It’s a fun place to be, it’s energizing, and we don’t get any of that here.
“We profess to be a mission-driven institution that’s about student success, learning and benefiting our community,” he continues. “If we have employees who work here at this site who never get a chance to see our mission, which is students learning, then we’re not really living a mission-driven purpose.”
When Community Colleges of Spokane moved into the building in 2000, it anticipated that the U-District location would help build relationships with other higher education institutions. And while those relationships have thrived over the years, Brockbank doesn’t think that proximity to other university buildings is the reason for that.
“The reality of it is that our physical location is not what spawns our partnerships with WSU Spokane or Gonzaga or anybody else who’s in this university district,” he says. “Those things happen because of meetings and work everywhere. So the physical location, while symbolic, provides no real, tangible benefit that we couldn’t get if we were in a different location.”
Brockbank anticipates the move will happen in stages. He anticipates that five of the six departments, along with their 50 employees, will move to the SFCC campus by December 2026. Then by the end of 2027, the final department, with just fewer than 50 employees, will relocate to the SCC campus.
As the organization works to shrink its footprint, it’s also undergoing a strategic rebranding, changing simply to “Spokane Colleges.” This rebrand has been in progress for more than two years and was introduced by former Chancellor Christine Johnson, Brockbank says.
Over the last few weeks, billboards have gone up around Spokane announcing the new name alongside other changes, such as the shift in mascot from bigfoot to sasquatch.
“It was just time for us to have a refresh and a modern look. Our previous logo and brand was outdated, and I don’t think very representative of who we are as an institution,” Brockbank says. “We’re really trying to make sure that we’re visible and available to anybody who’s interested in what we do. This is just a better representation for us of who we are.” n
coltonr@inlander.com
Spokane Colleges, formerly Community Colleges of Spokane, has operated out of this U-District building for more than two decades. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO
Access Denied
Kootenai County library network restricts minors’ access. Plus, regional 911 center tells Spokane to leave; and the Spokane GOP picks three county treasurer nominees
BY INLANDER STAFF
The Idaho-based Community Library Network, or CLN, board has approved a policy to create a mature content room for adults only at the Post Falls Library. The policy allows the library to comply with an Idaho law passed in 2024. At the Jan. 16 meeting, CLN Director Martin Walters stated that 140 books were pulled from shelves to be reviewed for content. “I’ve been trying to comply with a new law using normal library practices of a special collection within a collection,” Walters says. “If that is attributed [as] book banning or censorship, then the libraries have been banning large print books, inspirational, fiction, local history, etc. for a long time.” In a 3-1 vote, the board also approved limiting 8,906 minors who have open access cards. The policy change would end minor cardholders’ access to physical and digital materials from libraries that partner with the CLN and don’t have the same restrictions, such as locations in Washington.
(VICTOR CORRAL MARTINEZ)
EVERYONE BUT YOU
The lengthy “will they or won’t they join” conversation between the city of Spokane and Spokane Regional Emergency Communications, or SREC, ended abruptly last week, as the SREC board voted to have the city provide its own 911 dispatch by Jan. 1, 2026. SREC provides 911 dispatch and nonemergency call taking for 21 of the 22 law and fire agencies in Spokane County, including the Spokane Fire Department. Spokane Police Department is the lone holdout. After roughly nine months of correspondence with Mayor Lisa Brown’s administration, and four transition meetings attempting to draft an agreement to add the police department, the seven board members representing other agencies apparently reached their breaking point, effectively voting to boot the fire department out of SREC at the board’s Jan. 16 meeting. The recommendation will go to the Spokane County commissioners, who would need to approve the city setting up its own “primary public safety answering point” per state law. Read more about the one-year extension requested by the city, a bill to share 911 taxes that angered some SREC members, detailed timelines, and extensive responses from regional public safety leaders and elected officials at Inlander. com. (SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL)
TREASURED THREE
After being elected to Congress in November, Republican U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner resigned his position as Spokane County treasurer on Jan. 3. Last weekend, the Spokane County GOP Central Committee selected its top three candidates for Spokane County treasurer (from a list of eight applicants): state Rep. Mike Volz, John Christina and Robert Miceli. Volz, who represents the 6th Legislative District in the House, has served as the county’s chief deputy treasurer since 2011, and when Baumgartner was sworn into Congress earlier this month, Volz was named the acting county treasurer. At the Jan. 18 meeting, Volz said he plans to step down from the Legislature if he’s appointed by the Spokane County commissioners, the SpokesmanReview reported. Christina, an Air Force veteran, also worked for the county treasurer’s office as a finance deputy for more than five years. Miceli, the only candidate who has not worked in the office that he hopes to head, has more than 32 years of experience with the Army specializing in contracting and acquisitions. The Spokane County commissioners will need to appoint one of the three by early March, and whoever they select must run for reelection in November if they hope to keep the seat. (COLTON RASANEN) n
Magic Number Three
Idaho’s members of Congress push to add a third federal district judge in their state
BY VICTOR CORRAL MARTINEZ
In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower nominated Fredrick Taylor as the federal district judge to fill a newly created judgeship in Idaho. Today, the Gem State still has the same number of federal judges — just two.
Now, Idaho’s members of Congress are pushing two companion bills to add a third federal district judge to address the demand in Idaho’s federal court system.
Idaho’s population has gone from about 600,000 in 1954 to an estimated 2 million today, according to census data. With increased population, there is a correlation of increased caseloads, says U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, who has sponsored the Senate version of the bill to add a judge.
A federal district judge oversees trial cases in U.S. District Court, part of the United States federal court system that hears civil and criminal cases and trials.
The president nominates federal judicial
candidates based on recommendations from senators, who then hold hearings and confirm each appointment. Those judges are then allowed to serve for life.
Last year, the JUDGES Act, aimed at addressing caseload issues in Idaho and other states including California by creating 66 new district judgeships. The Senate passed the measure by unanimous consent in August. Five weeks after the presidential election, the Republican-led House voted 236-173 largely along party lines, with the support of 207 Republicans and 29 Democrats. On Christmas Eve, former President Joe Biden vetoed the bill.
In a letter addressing the veto, Biden argued that caseloads weren’t the motivating force behind the act. Instead, he argued that senators were trying to create new judicial vacancies that could be held open for President Donald Trump to fill.
In an email to the Inlander, U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, says that he believes Biden’s
Idaho’s Congressional delegation hopes to grow the judiciary. Clockwise from top left: Rep. Russ Fulcher, Sen. Mike Crapo, Sen. Jim Risch and Rep. Mike Simpson. OFFICIAL CONGRESSIONAL PORTRAITS
“11th-hour veto” of the JUDGES Act was political maneuvering to block President Trump’s nominees.
“It is both disappointing and appalling that partisan spite was prioritized over the clear and urgent judicial needs of Idahoans,” Risch writes. “I look forward to working with President Trump to bring another judge to Idaho in the 119th Congress.”
Judge Robert Conrad, Jr., the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, sent Biden a letter addressing the concerns mentioned in his veto. Conrad wrote that the legislation was a thoroughly researched plan to address the expansions needed around the country since 2002.
According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the last action to address the judgeship issue at large was approved by Congress in 2002. Since then, lawmakers have regularly submitted requests for additional judges, which have been allocated consistent with those requests.
“This veto is a deviation from the long historical pattern of approving judgeship bills that awarded new judgeships to sitting Presidents,” Conrad says. “The President’s veto is contrary to the actions of Senator Biden, who helped pass many of those bills.”
Despite the veto, Idaho’s two U.S. representatives — Republican Reps. Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson — have already introduced House Resolution 319 to add a third federal judgeship to Idaho. Idaho’s two U.S. senators, Crapo and Risch, introduced Senate Bill 54 as a companion.
Crapo says he hopes the creation of the third judgeship will address the 600 cases per judge that the two federal district judges in Idaho currently face. He says circuit chief judges have to assign cases to federal judges outside the state because the caseload continues growing.
“They have told us that we badly need this [judgeship] for years now, as the caseloads simply keep increasing,” Crapo says. “They’ve increased by about 40%, and people across the state of Idaho are very aware that we don’t have sufficient judges to handle the caseload in our state.”
All four of Idaho’s federal lawmakers are working to get the bills across the finish line quickly. Fulcher says a symbolic “one voice” delegation is essential to get on the same page and get the legislation approved.
“We’ve got a problem, and we’ve got a potential solution,” Fulcher says. “Frankly, it’s the power in numbers that we’re all on the same page when it comes to this, and sometimes that’s advantageous when trying to achieve a certain cause.”
The federal district judges in Idaho operate statewide, with offices in Boise, Pocatello and Coeur d’Alene. If the bill makes it to Trump’s desk and is signed, it’s unclear where the third judge will primarily operate from in Idaho.
Crapo says a newly appointed judge would decide where to reside. He says the judge will likely travel to different parts of the state to hear cases, since the courts use a rotation system.
“It’s very possible that the state, or even the federal government, in a federal building, might build some facilities, like constructing a new courthouse or a courtroom in an existing building, and try to encourage the judge to locate there,” Crapo says.
Both bills have been introduced and sent to their respective chambers’ judiciary committees. Crapo is a member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and will get to promote his bill.
U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner, a first-term Republican representing Washington’s 5th Congressional District, is expected to have a say on the House side, after being assigned to the House Judiciary Committee.
Fulcher and Crapo say they hope that a desire for fiscal responsibility by not hiring judges outside of Idaho for some cases, and the need to help the overburdened judicial system will strengthen their case.
“It’s hard to argue against what we’re attempting to do, given our growth and our circumstances, but we’re willing to have input and make our case,” Fulcher says. “But as far as I’m concerned, the more we can share and expose what we’re trying to do and its benefits, the better off we’ll be.” n victorc@inlander.com
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Down the Sinkhole
Leyna Krow blends the unimaginable with reality in new short story collection Sinkhole and Other Inexplicable Voids
BY MADISON PEARSON
Imagine there was a cure for all of life’s problems in the form of a gigantic hole in the backyard of your newly purchased home.
Terrifying? Sure.
Tempting? Absolutely
In one of Spokane author Leyna Krow’s many alternate universes, a couple discovers the inconvenient sinkhole in their backyard has the power to fix anything that’s thrown inside. A broken flashlight reappears from the void seconds later on their coffee table, good as new. A sick turtle is even cured of its illness to the delight of their son.
Krow’s short story “Sinkhole” was originally written for the 2016 edition of Lilac City Fairy Tales, an anthology of mythical stories and poetry spearheaded by fellow writers Sharma Shields and Ellen Welcker. It was later reprinted in the Seattle literary journal Moss, gaining traction in both the literature community and Hollywood, when in 2020 producer Issa Rae and filmmaker Jordan
Peele bought the rights to adapt it into a feature film.
Though there’s no start date set for filming, “Sinkhole” and 15 other short stories now appear in Krow’s newest collection, Sinkhole and Other Inexplicable Voids, releasing on Jan. 28.
“I would use the sinkhole all the time,” Krow says when asked what she would throw in. “I have this iPod that I use very regularly from 2008, and I feel like it’s almost on its last legs at this point. So I would definitely throw that into the sinkhole.”
In Sinkhole and Other Inexplicable Voids, Krow weaves an ornate tapestry of tales beginning with “The Twin,” in which a family of four’s life is upended when the youngest boy, Jace, suddenly gains a twin in his crib overnight. Half of the stories in Sinkhole follow this family, consisting of matriarch Jenna, father Troy, daughter Ruby, and the twin boys Jace and Nicholas.
“When I first submitted a version of the manuscript to my editor, it had “The Twin” in it but none of the
other stories involving that family,” Krow says. “She said it felt disjointed, like there wasn’t a unifying thread. So the inclusion of the recurring characters was a very, very late and artificial addition to the manuscript, but it ended up being the structure to the whole book.”
“The Twin” sets the tone for the rest of the collection, a potpourri of stories mostly set in and around Spokane. It’s familiar, but just unsettling enough to ignite a funny feeling in the reader’s stomach.
Each of the 16 stories in Sinkhole is vastly different from the next, jumping across broad stretches of time to showcase the collection’s underlying themes of climate change and familial bonds. There are windstorms, fires, butterfly migration incidents and newfound plagues that impact the shifting world in which Krow’s characters reside.
Like “Sinkhole,” each has a twist. In “A Plan To Save Us All,” a plague is about to rip through a small community. In order to stop the diseases from ever occurring in the first place, a horde of time travelers go back in time to specialize in various fields.
“I think ‘magical realism’ is the genre that most people are familiar with when we’re talking about those things,” Krow says. “But I feel like my work is just more strange and otherworldly, so I like the term ‘fabulism’ better.”
“Moser,” meanwhile, features a baby trapped inside the body of a college-age male who accidentally becomes drunk while under the brief supervision of his mother’s college roommate.
None of these characters, however, ever question the strange facets of the world around them, going blissfully about their lives while time travelers infiltrate and the existence of man babies is perhaps commonplace.
“If we can just accept that the strangeness is part of the world, then we can move on to what’s more interesting a lot more quickly,” Krow says. “We’ve got a limited amount of space together in short stories.”
Before the release of her 2022 full-length novel, Fire Season, Krow penned her first short story collection, I’m Fine, But You Appear To Be Sinking, in 2017. She says she’s been drawn to the short story format for a long time.
“I’ve always liked the succinctness,” she says. “Most people don’t enjoy them as much as novels, but I like the compressed nature of them. When I was in graduate school, I really felt like I got a handle on the different ways to write them, the different shapes that they can take and feel like a whole story unto themselves.”
Krow’s own father often points out that some of her stories don’t appear to have an end, yet it’s another facet she enjoys about her writing.
The final story in Sinkhole, “Appendix: Selected Letters from Grandma Jenna,” neatly ties up the collection with a blood-red ribbon that reminds readers of the ominous “gift” that awaits us all: a climate disaster.
“I knew I wanted there to be a climate-driven disaster that would happen somewhere that wasn’t Spokane but then would ripple into Spokane, and they would observe from afar,” Krow says. “There’s quite a lot of climatedriven literature at this point and, selfishly, I didn’t want to write about climate change in a way that everybody else would.”
Amid all the otherworldly phenomena around them, climate change creeps up on the characters in Krow’s stories in different ways.
“If we can just accept that the strangeness is part of the world, then we can move on to what’s more interesting a lot more quickly.”
The twin Nicholas leaves Washington to become a firefighter in California due to earlier and earlier fire seasons. His brother Jace also sets out on a journey across the world seeking an opportunity to make a difference. Another character, glaciologist Andi, begs for access to a glacier near Mount Rainier before a catastrophic lahar can take place and wipe out cities at the base of the mountain.
While the fabulous scenarios Krow creates in Sinkhole and Other Inexplicable Voids are truly far-fetched, there are still layers of truth buried deep within. Climate change will eventually impact us all — if it hasn’t already — no matter how far away we are from the epicenter.
“The lahar is a real thing, and it will happen if Rainier erupts,” she says. “Climate change is something that we’re all battling with in our world.” n
Leyna Krow: Sinkhole and Other Inexplicable Voids • Tue, Jan. 28 at 7 pm • Free • Auntie’s Bookstore • 402 W. Main Ave. • auntiesbooks.com
The 21st annual Spokane Jewish Film Festival showcases diverse representations of Jewish life throughout history
serious documentaries about Holocaust survivors, the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict, and a Jewish community’s impact during the Civil Rights Movement, attendees will find brevity in other short films about circumcision (Just the Tip) and familial arguments about what kind of takeout to get (We Should Eat).
BY COLTON RASANEN
For more than two decades now the Spokane Jewish Film Festival has brought collections of films, documentaries and shorts presenting Jewish life and culture to the Inland Northwest. Each year, the festival supports the nonprofit Spokane Area Jewish Family Services (JFS).
While the festival lineup is technically shorter than last year’s 20th anniversary celebration, Sorensen says there’s been growth in other areas. For example, this year’s festivities mark the event’s return to the Magic Lantern Theatre, Spokane’s only art-house theater.
“[The Magic Lantern] is really well suited to host events like the film festival,” he says, “and one of the deciding factors for us to choose this venue was in the value of supporting a local, independent theater.”
Additionally, Sorensen says the film festival offers more in-person showings, receptions and post-screening discussions than last year. There are even a few films, Vishniac and The Goldman Case, alongside the short Tattooed4Life, that can be viewed from home.
“It’s important that we grow the film festival every year, to support JFS and the work it does, like providing supportive services and programming for families, children, low-income families and seniors in our community,” says Jack Sorensen, a member of its board. “Not just that, film festivals are a really engaging and educational way for people to learn about other communities and cultures that they live with. I don’t know of a better medium than film in which to do that.”
This year, from Jan. 25 to Feb. 2, the festival showcases a collection of 11 films and shorts documenting the diversity of Jewish life. Between
Every film and short in the festival’s lineup was hand-picked from a pool of similarly great submissions months ago, and are all worth a watch; however, Sorensen says these three featurelength documentaries are must-see experiences.
Just the Tip
CARLA THE RESCUER
Sat, Jan. 25 at 4 pm (also at 7 pm, sold out)
Carla the Rescuer, a locally made documentary featuring World War II Dutch resistance member Carla Peperzak, is the headlining film in this year’s festival. Peperzak, who lives in Spokane and turned 101 years old in November, still shares her story throughout the Inland Northwest.
“We just feel how cool and special it is to have the opportunity to really be the premiere of this film about a local Holocaust survivor and Dutch resistance member who is obviously very well known and respected in our community,”
Sorenson says. “There are many members of the community who have heard her story, but having it captured on film, you know, it wasn’t even a question that we would open [the festival] with it.”
The short Jack and Sam, which tells the story of two Holocaust survivors who reconnect in their 90s and rekindle their friendship, accompanies the sold-out 7 pm showing of Carla the Rescuer
Sun, Jan. 26 at 2 pm
Described as a sci-fi documentary, Lyd examines the rise and fall of the 5,000-year-old Palestinian town which was conquered in 1948 when Israel was formed. The city today, now named Lod, sits about an hour west of Israel’s capital Jerusalem. Co-directed by Jewish filmmaker Sarah Ema Friedland and Palestinian filmmaker Rami Younis, the film explores the impacts of massacre and
expulsion on the Palestinian experience. After the showing, both Friedland and Younis are attending a virtual Q&A moderated by Eastern Washington University professor Rob Sauders, an expert on the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We really feel strongly that film festivals, as a community cultural event, are places where we should be challenged and ask questions and have discussion and dialogue,”
Sorensen says. “The film consists of both documentary-style interviews, but also narrative storytelling through animation imagining an alternative present for Lyd.”
AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND
Thu, Jan. 30 at 7 pm
Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round tells the story of the first organized interracial civil rights protest in U.S. history. Directly after the film is a moderated post-screening discussion. While the 2024 documentary directed by Ilana Trachtman doesn’t have any direct ties to the region, its showing is thanks to a partnership with Spokane’s NAACP chapter.
“This is a really cool event and a really cool partnership to show this film that we’re really excited about,” Sorensen says. “It’s just a fascinating and incredible documentary about a really undertold story of the Civil Rights Movement and a really important story about racial solidarity for civil rights. At this moment, it’s the right documentary for the film festival.” n
Spokane Jewish Film Festival 2025 • Jan. 25-Feb. 2; show times vary • $10-$70 • Magic Lantern Theatre • 25 W. Main Ave. sajfs.org/our-programs/sjcff
Four Signs It Might Be Time to Consider Assisted Living
Deciding to discuss assisted living with a loved one can be overwhelming but recognizing certain signs can help guide the conversation. Here are four signs it might be time to consider assisted living:
1. DAILY LIVING IS DIFFICULT
As we age, tasks like bathing, dressing, and hygiene can become harder. If a loved one struggles with these tasks, especially personal hygiene, it could indicate the need for assistance.
2. LIVING CONDITIONS ARE DETERIORATING If a loved one’s home is becoming disorganized or unsanitary, it may be too much for them to manage. Check their fridge for spoiled food or expired items, as this can signal that maintaining a household is becoming overwhelming.
3. A FALL HAS OCCURRED
Falls are a serious risk for older adults, often leading to fractures or injuries. The fear of falling or a recent fall is a strong indicator that more support may be needed to ensure safety.
4. THERE IS COGNITIVE DECLINE
Memory issues can signal cognitive decline. If your loved one is experiencing significant forgetfulness or confusion, it’s crucial to consult a physician, as cognitive decline can lead to safety risks like unsafe driving or medication mishaps.
To learn more about how we can help you or a loved one, visit us online at sullivanparksl.com, or call us at (509) 924-5555 to schedule a visit.
LYD
THIS IS GROWING UP
Playing Mario Party with my family unlocked a newfound appreciation for gaming
BY COLTON RASANEN
It’s Christmas, my first ever in Spokane, and my family has spent most of the evening locked in a heated battle. Packed into my narrow Browne’s Addition living room, we’re all hunched over our small Nintendo Switch controllers vying for the coveted top spot in Super Mario Party Jamboree
The competition is brutal, but I manage to reach first place for a little while by buying three stars in one turn. Unfortunately, the star drought I face the rest of the game evens the playing field. In the end I only win after receiving one of the post-game bonus stars for my diligent coin collection.
Days later I realize it was the first time the four of us had played video games together in at least a decade. It sounds silly, but it makes me feel sad.
The more that I think about it now, so many of my childhood memories are connected to video games. As a kid in the early 2000s, when new gaming consoles seemed to come out all the time, it made sense that I’d be into video games. But I also believe my parents and even my grandparents’ interest in the pastime had a large part in shaping me into the gamer — and person — I am today.
For example, some of my earliest memories of staying at my grandma’s house are peppered with visions of her killing it at Tetris on her red Gameboy Advance SP. I don’t remember how old I was at the time, but I was obviously old enough to form a strong connection with the game.
My attempts at mimicking her dexterous fingers and quick problem solving were not great, so memories of my own Tetris successes are practically nonexistent. In fact, the memories I do have are because I spent
about three months in 2023 solely playing Tetris 99, the multiplayer version of this blocky puzzle game.
When I was older, maybe 8 or 9 years old, I remember waking up a few times after bedtime, only to find my mom still awake playing Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. Whether she was too distracted to notice me, or generously let me stay awake with her, those moments were so cool. Each time I watched her she’d beat levels my little brain couldn’t even comprehend reaching in my own pre-bedtime playthroughs.
We played the Wii together all the time, usually opting for fun party games such as those in the Mario and Sonic franchises, but I beat my dad in Tekken and Mortal Kombat from time to time, too. Sadly, those fun family moments ended around the time I began high school and started solely playing online multiplayer games that were popular in my class.
I know it’s natural for a teen to distance themselves from their parents, but what I was too young to understand then is that those moments spent cramped together on the couch (often in arguments with my little sister, who always sat too close to me) would turn out to become some of my fondest memories.
Less than a week after our Mario Party Christmas beatdown and my sad realization about our hiatus, I got a call from my parents who were at the store buying their own console. I couldn’t help but smile. To know that the joy and nostalgia I had — and still have — for gaming together is reciprocated by the people I love the most, is heartwarming. At least until I assert my Mario Party dominance next time we play. n
THE BUZZ BIN
FÚTBOL IS LIFE
The World Cup is coming to Seattle in 2026, but the rest of the state doesn’t want to be excluded from the elite soccer action. It was recently announced that Spokane will be one of nine Washington cities with an official World Cup “fan zone” next summer. While specifics have yet to be announced, the fan zone will be a public spot where the community can gather and watch games on a huge screen while also enjoying live entertainment, food and beverage sales, and more. (We’re guessing Spokane’s fan zone will be located around Riverfront Park or ONE Spokane Stadium, but that’s pure conjecture.) So even if you don’t end up snagging World Cup tickets across the state, Spokanites will still have a place to kick it. (SETH SOMMERFELD)
FAREWELL TO A MASTER
Few have shaped the alternative creative subconscious like David Lynch. After spending some of his early years growing up in Spokane, Lynch applied his unique creative vision to filmmaking and created iconic works including Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet (which he said he pictured taking place in Spokane) and the all-time cult classic TV show Twin Peaks. The legendary director died last week at age 78, but his legacy lives on in the minds of all compassionate creatives who aren’t afraid to challenge the norm. (SETH SOMMERFELD)
THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
Noteworthy new music arriving in stores and online on Jan. 24.
TEDDY SWIMS, I’VE TRIED EVERYTHING BUT THERAPY (PART 2)
After breaking out with “Lose Control” — the most played song on the radio in 2024 — the blue-eyed soul singer looks to keep up the momentum on his follow-up LP.
FKA TWIGS, EUSEXUA
The avant-garde electropop star returns with a new twitchy and atmospheric album inspired by Prague’s underground raves.
KANE BROWN, THE HIGH ROAD
The country megastar’s latest album already has two chart-topping singles: the EDM-flavored Marshmello collaboration “Miles On It” and “I Can Feel It” (a riff on Phil Collins’ biggest song).
(SETH SOMMERFELD)
Tetris: it’s fun for everyone!
America,
A new exhibition at Gonzaga’s Jundt Art Museum showcases 100 works produced during a singular period in American history
BY E.J. IANNELLI
Wthe Beautiful VISUAL ARTS
hen it comes to the arts in America, the second quarter of the 20th century is significant.
That’s not only because it was informed by European Modernism and Surrealism, two hugely influential movements that had already made transatlantic crossings by that time, but also because of two events that radically shaped society at large: the Great Depression and World War II.
Highlighting this period in its spring 2025 show, Gonzaga University’s Jundt Art Museum is presenting “Art U.S.A.,” a brand new exhibition that features 100 works by as many artists from that momentous period between 1925 and 1950.
The Great Depression in particular, and the New Deal programs that emerged in response to it, held some unexpected advantages for artists. One initiative that sprang out of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) was the Federal Art Project, which directly supported working artists and funded public art. Around 10,000 artists and crafters benefited from the FAP, as it was known, during its eight-year run.
“It was a recognition on the part of the Roosevelt administration and Congress that the cultural sector was an important sector of the economy, and if the U.S. was going to pull out of the Depression, one of the aspects of the economy that needed to find support was that cultural sector,” says Paul Manoguerra, the Jundt’s director and curator of “Art U.S.A.”
The FAP also spurred the founding of over 100 community art centers across the country, including one in Spokane.
Following the model of its nationwide counterparts, the Spokane Art Center was a cultural hub that hosted accomplished artists and cultivated both skills and knowledge among aspiring ones. The list of noteworthy artists who were involved with the center, located downtown, over its brief lifespan (1938-1942) included R. Bruce Inverarity, Robert O. Engard, James FitzGerald, Margaret Tomkins, Guy Anderson and Z. Vanessa Helder, all of whom are represented in the Jundt exhibition.
“This never existed on such a massive scale up until these New Deal programs, and it hasn’t happened again. I don’t mean to overstate it but, from an American perspective, one of the great parallels is Renaissance Italy and the way that important government entities and wealthy aristocratic families supported artists,” Manoguerra says.
The key difference is that the New Deal programs were very much focused on democratizing or at least expanding the creation and enjoyment of art, even among those who normally found themselves on the periphery.
Manoguerra calls it a “cultural pluralism” that manifests itself in different ways throughout “Art U.S.A.”
“The best way that I can describe this exhibition is ‘100 stories.’ I see it as made up of 100 visual anecdotes that, combined with the biographies of the artists, gives us a comprehensive picture of what art in the time period was like and the ways that art reflected American society,” he says.
“And then when you add up the 100 stories, you get this nice picture.”
Although space prevents us from retelling all 100 stories here — for that, there’s an eponymous book that accompanies the exhibition — what follows are five artists who represent the breadth and diversity of the works on display in “Art U.S.A.” All of which, save one, have been drawn from the Jundt’s own permanent collection.
Z. Vanessa Helder, above, and her watercolor “Neighborhood Pine.” IMAGES COURTESY THE MAC / JUNDT
ART U.S.A.: ONE HUNDRED WORKS ON PAPER, 1925-1950
Jan. 25-May 10; Mon-Sat 10 am-4 pm •
Opening reception Fri, Jan. 24 from 4-7 pm
• Free • “Art U.S.A.” exhibition catalog $50 • Jundt Art Museum • 200 E. Desmet Ave. • More info, including on special tours and events, at gonzaga.edu/jundt
Z. VANESSA HELDER (1904-1968)
Zama Vanessa Helder’s approximately 10-by-13-inch watercolor “Neighborhood Pine” is one of the pieces in “Art U.S.A.” that might speak to a wider public in the way that it elevates an ordinary view. A lone pine tree, hunchbacked by a lifetime of Inland Northwest winds, bows over a cluster of unremarkable boxy buildings — a shed, a garage, a house — under a gray sky.
Created in 1940, it could easily be a scene straight out of the post-Depression era in Spokane, where Helder was one of the artists hired by R. Bruce Inverarity to teach printmaking and watercolor at the Spokane Art Center. Helder, who was born in the rural northwest part of Washington state, had by that time piqued the interest of art appreciators throughout the region and beyond.
In 1943, Manoguerra says, “she ended up being included in a historically famous show at the Museum of Modern Art on Realism and Magic Realism. She was in that exhibition with artists like Edward Hopper.”
Having her work featured alongside the likes of Hopper and Charles Sheeler helped solidify Helder’s already strong reputation on both the East and West coasts. Accordingly, her name crops up again and again throughout the accompanying “Art U.S.A.” book because her life intersected with so many other regional ...continued on next page
“AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL,” CONTINUED...
and national artists from the period.
By the mid-1980s, however, her star had already begun to fade in the art world.
“Vanessa died in 1968 and all of her work got dispersed, mostly through the Westside Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles. They sold them off in tag sales,” says David Martin, a curator at the Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds. He co-wrote a book on Helder for a major retrospective exhibition at the Tacoma Art Museum in 2013 that helped renew wider appreciation for her career.
Fortunately, Helder’s work and reputation were saved from further loss by Florence Reed, one of her former pupils at the Spokane Art Center. Reed, who later became the director of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, bought Helder’s now famous series of watercolors of the Grand Coulee Dam.
“If she hadn’t studied with Vanessa and then become the director of that museum, that whole series would have been gone,” Martin says. The MAC still has Helder’s Grand Coulee Dam series in its permanent collection.
CHIURA OBATA (1885-1975)
If you were to overlook the title of Chiura Obata’s late-1930s ink wash painting, “Angel Island, San Francisco Bay” you might think for a moment that the artist is depicting a seascape in his birth country of Japan. Through the image’s serene, pillowy lines, executed in a style that incorporates traditional Western watercolor and Japanese sumi techniques, a low mountain rises behind a distant
JANUARY 23, 2025
steam-powered ferry. In the foreground the water ripples against the gently curving shoreline.
Yet this isn’t Okayama, where Obata was born (as Zoroku Sato) in 1885. As the piece’s title states, it’s Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay, captured from the vantage of the hills just beyond Berkeley.
“You can see the influences that [Obata] learns through Japanese painting. But then he’s applying
them to a very American and Western subject matter, which is San Francisco Bay,” Manoguerra says, “and in that case slightly ironically in that it’s Angel Island, which often gets referred to as the Ellis Island of the West because it was the immigrant processing station for the West Coast.”
Obata eventually became an American citizen, but his Japanese heritage was a liability when wartime xenophobia seized the country, fueled by the attack on Pearl Harbor. Following Executive Order 9066 in 1942, Obata was interned at San Francisco’s Tanforan Assembly Center before being moved to the Topaz War Relocation Center in the Utah desert.
Despite the camp conditions, Obata continued to practice his craft and live out the democratizing ideals that would have been right at home in the Federal Art Project.
“He and another artist in that camp created art programs. In fact, his surviving drawings and watercolors from Topaz are one of the great visual records of life in internment camps,” Manoguerra says.
Owing to the growing recognition of domestic injustices during that period of American history, Obata’s reputation has lately become more closely associated with the artwork that he produced during his incarceration. That body of work shouldn’t overshadow the talent and originality that he displayed across a variety of media throughout his entire career. “Angel Island, San Francisco Bay” gives viewers an opportunity to appreciate the kind of pieces Obata was producing well before he knew the cruelties of internment.
...continued on page 26
The Jundt Art Museum’s Director and Curator, Paul Manoguerra, prepping the exhibition “Art U.S.A” for its Jan. 25 opening. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
Chiura Obata, below, painted a scene of San Francisco Bay. JUNDT / ARTIST PHOTO PUBLIC DOMAIN
FAY CHONG (1912-1973)
In 1920, having emigrated from his native China, Fay Chong arrived with his family in Seattle. He was still in high school when he began honing his skills in different media, especially printmaking, and developing relationships with other young artists like Morris Graves and Andrew Chinn.
“Printmaking was taught more back in those days, the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s, so Fay started very early and was doing beautiful work. He and George Tsutakawa both went to the same high school, and they started winning awards for their printmaking,” Martin says. (Tsutakawa’s renowned sculptural work includes the unnamed aluminum fountain outside Spokane’s First Interstate Center for the Arts.)
Along with Chinn and others, Chong was a cofounder of Seattle’s Chinese Art Club. There he came into contact with artists like Mark Tobey, whose work also appears in “Art U.S.A.,” as well as Guy Anderson and R. Bruce Inverarity, both of whom have links to the Spokane Art Center.
These names aren’t dropped lightly. Tobey, Anderson and Graves would become leading figures in the Northwest School of artists, a regional movement that also included Tsutakawa and the first director of the Spokane Art Center, Carl Morris.
Chong worked fairly regularly for the Federal Art Project during most of the program’s existence. The FAP gigs encouraged him to add watercolor to his skillset in addition to printmaking. He used both media to capture different federal buildings and other landmarks.
Manoguerra quotes Chong’s own praise for the FAP in the “Art U.S.A.” book.
“I’m paraphrasing, but he said that if it hadn’t been for the federal programs, he just didn’t know where he would have been as an artist. And you see that in some of the other comments, especially the artists of color, where the federal art program allowed them to be professional artists where it would have certainly been more difficult for them otherwise.”
The linocut print featured in “Art U.S.A.” dates from 1936, two years before Chong began his involvement with the FAP. It’s a highly stylized intersection of waterways that makes its title, “The Stream,” read like an understatement. The curving lines of the currents contrast with the rigid verticals of the trees. A tidy, L-shaped arrangement of logs in the foreground creates, in Manoguerra’s words, an “insufficient dam” against the water’s force.
As Martin notes, Chong was just as interested in depicting the region’s civilization as its natural landscape.
“He also did a lot of work around the Hooverville in Seattle,” he says, “but the funny thing with Fay Chong is that his prints are mostly Western looking. You would think that with an Asianinspired technique and medium, which printmaking is, his works would have looked more Asian, but they don’t. They’re almost modernist types of works, and they’re really exceptional.”
THOMAS HART BENTON
(1889-1975)
Often mentioned in the same breath as Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, Thomas Hart Benton was a major proponent of American Regionalism, a homegrown realist movement that arose in response to the abstraction of European Modernism. Its rise and fall broadly paralleled the trajectory of the Federal Art Project.
“Thomas Hart Benton is probably the most financially successful and influential of the artists in this exhibition,” Manoguerra says. “One of his pupils was Jackson Pollock. And in Pollock’s early images, there’s an element of surrealism to them, but they are Regionalist because he was learning from Thomas Hart Benton.”
Unlike many of the artists represented in “Art U.S.A.,” however, Benton’s region of choice wasn’t the Pacific Northwest but his native Midwest. With a few visual changes, his lettersized lithograph “Loading Corn” might capture an agricultural workday on the undulating hills of the Palouse. But as it stands, the idyllic scene
of two laborers tossing baskets of corn into a horse-drawn wagon is almost unmistakably set in America’s heartland. Benton himself said it was from a series inspired by an autumn in Missouri. Fellow Midwesterner and Regionalist Grant Wood joins Benton in this exhibition with “Midnight Alarm.” Also a lithograph, this work centers on a farmer in pajamas urgently coming downstairs with a lit oil lamp. If you were looking for a neat encapsulation of American Regionalism’s deliberate contrast to Modernism, compare “Midnight Alarm” to Marcel Duchamp’s 1912 landmark work “Nude Descending a Staircase.”
“Most people will be familiar with Grant Wood even though they don’t necessarily realize that they’re familiar with him because of ‘American Gothic,’” Manoguerra says.
“But again and again I think there’ll be dozens upon dozens of talented artists here that people have never heard of. This is the kind of an exhibition that a big museum in a big city would be doing, and I’m proud that our collection is good enough to be able to do it.”
Thomas Hart Benton (right) and his lithograph “Loading Corn.” JUNDT / ARTIST PHOTO PUBLIC DOMAIN
“The Stream” by Fay Chong (above) JUNDT / ARTIST PHOTO COURTESY WING LUKE MUSEUM
FLETCHER MARTIN (1904-1979)
Out of the 100 stories that “Art U.S.A.” aims to tell, the one that receives the most attention is the tale behind Fletcher Martin’s mural for the Kellogg, Idaho, post office.
In 1939, as part of the New Deal’s effort to spur both the construction and decoration of new federal buildings, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts held an art contest called the 48 States Competition. It attracted more than 3,000 submissions. The winning murals were to be installed in select small-town post offices in each state of the country, which was still two decades away from admitting Alaska and Hawaii.
The Kellogg post office garnered two notable entries: Jean Donald Swiggett’s “Exploration and Mining, Kellogg, Idaho” and Fletcher Martin’s “Mine Rescue.”
Swiggett’s watercolor is a triptych that centers on a pinned collection of maps and drawings. Those documents are bordered on either side by archetypal images of early 19th-century explorers and contemporary miners. Martin’s painting, by contrast, is rendered in a much bolder style, and its subject is more emotionally charged. It shows an injured miner being carried on a stretcher by two of his colleagues.
Though “Mine Rescue” was the one favored by the contest jury, Kellogg residents were not on board. A spread in Life magazine showcasing the 48 winning murals noted the opposition campaign that had united everyone from mining unions and politicians to the Idaho Art Association.
“The people of Kellogg, Idaho, saw the images of Fletcher Martin’s winning selection. That was the mural that they were going to get in their post office, and they hated it,” Manoguerra says.
“Some of the arguments were aesthetic — that it was too modern, too Futurist. But it was the subject matter that everybody in Kellogg seemed to object to. In a small community like Kellogg, everybody knew
or was related to somebody who had been in danger or injured in the mines. So was that the reminder that you wanted in your post office when you went to go buy stamps or to mail a package?”
To better illustrate the story of how Kellogg’s post office eventually wound up with “Discovery,” a different — and far less fraught — Fletcher Martin mural that still adorns its wall to this day, “Art U.S.A ” will display “Lantern Test” and “Shake Shute,” two preparatory studies that Martin did for the 48 States Competition. They’ll be shown alongside Swiggett’s contest entry.
On top of that, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has loaned Martin’s “Mine Rescue” to the Jundt for this exhibition. The controversial painting is the only work in “Art U.S.A ” that isn’t drawn from the museum’s own collection. n
Fletcher Martin PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO
Martin’s “Lantern Test” sketch. COURTESY JUNDT ART MUSEUM
Fletcher Martin’s “Mine Rescue” (center) proposed for the Kellogg post office is on loan from the Smithsonian. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
the Inland Northwest the Inland Northwest
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OPENING
The Croissant Savant
Leaven Bakery & Patisserie in Deer Park touts “the best croissants this side of Paris”
BY DORA SCOTT
For most, waking up on the “wrong side of the bed” can set off irritability for the rest of the day. For Clint Janson, the head baker at Leaven Bakery & Patisserie and husband of owner Christie Janson, however, unfavorable croissant dough is the daily predictor of his mood.
“My attitude has been really, really good the last few months,” says Janson, whose croissants have been said to rival those from France.
Many who’ve tried the bakery that opened in late summer 2024 in Deer Park’s small downtown area wouldn’t believe it if you told them that Janson barely knew how to make chocolate chip cookies a few years ago. Now, he supports his wife by baking up a storm and perfecting his recipes.
Christie Janson works full time as a nurse supervisor but carves out time in the early morning hours to bake her much-loved cinnamon rolls before heading out to work a 10-hour shift.
“People have always told my wife that her cinnamon rolls are the best that they’ve ever tasted,” Clint says. “It’s just nice to see people affirming that they are incredibly great cinnamon rolls. They’re light and fluffy, so she’s had that dialed in.”
Clint and Christie took over the corner of West Crawford and South Main Street in Deer Park originally with the dream of continuing on the legacy of its former tenant, Thai Garden. Blown away by the Thai restaurant’s peanut sauce, Clint vowed years ago to take over the business if it ever closed, despite having an advertis-
ing and marketing background and no experience in a commercial kitchen.
“We bought [Thai Garden’s] top 15 recipes and the name, and we were just going to do takeout Thai food. That was it, that was where it was going to end,” he says. “But the new building owner, Deborah Freeman, had this space and that space as one unit and wanted a kind of a sit-down restaurant. It was her vision.”
While surveying the space for renovations, the couple found extra square footage they weren’t quite sure what to do with.
“And then my wife reminded me, ‘You know, I’ve always dreamed of owning a bakery.’ She told me that a few years ago, and I created that logo a few years ago just for fun,” Clint says, referring to the rising “A” in Leaven’s logo. The name is a reference to the leavening process in baking.
Putting “honey-do lists” to shame, Clint encouraged and helped Christie fulfill her dream, simultaneously becoming a pastry master in his own right.
To get a taste of Leaven’s most popular items, croissants ($6.95) and cinnamon rolls ($5.25), be sure to set your alarm to an ungodly hour — especially if you have a decent drive to Deer Park. Many days, these bestsellers are sold out before 10 am.
The couple’s pastries draw customers from near and far, all vying to get their hands on the buttery, flakey goodness. Yet it’s also been a labor of love to perfect a croissant recipe that suits Deer Park’s specific climate and altitude.
“For a year, the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my
entire life was trying to perfect croissants,” Clint says.
Besides taking an online master class with worldrenowned pastry chef Antonio Bachour, Clint went through numerous failures to reach a croissant recipe he’s proud to showcase.
“I don’t think there’s any major secret about it, but every single day the dough acts differently. It feels differently. It’s the temperature of the dough, it’s the temperature of the butter, it’s the quality of the butter. Our butter is very expensive — it’s crazy expensive,” he says of the high-fat European butter used.
Clint uses a hand-crank laminator, a machine which assists in folding the layers of butter into the dough, whereas most bakeries today use an electric laminator to significantly reduce production time.
Proofing the dough adds even more complexity.
“I had to figure out a way to make them, get them in the freezer, and then pull them out and let them proof overnight so they’re ready in the morning, or else you’re here all the time,” he says. “And so I’ve been able to do that, we’re doing about a 12-and-a-half- to 13-hour proof. So I come in the morning, they’re just about ready, turn on the ovens, get them in.”
Clint’s hard effort paid off when a customer told him, “‘This is better than any croissant I had in Paris, and I’ve lived in Paris for six years.’”
“Because that was my goal. I thought, I do always dream big, and I thought that that might be pretentious, that might be unattainable, but it seems like it hasn’t been,” he says.
A taste of Paris, via Deer Park. ERICK DOXEY PHOTOS
Some of the other baked goods Leaven sells utilizing his perfected croissant dough are a pain au chocolat ($6.95) and kouignamann ($5.50), akin to a “caramelized croissant.” There’s also a ham and swiss croissant ($7.50) for those who seek something more savory.
Leaven’s scones ($3.25), with flavors like maple walnut, orange cranberry and chocolate almond, have the perfect soft but crumbly texture.
Since opening, the bakery has turned into even more of a family affair, with Christie’s son, Tribe, heading up the sourdough operations.
“He’s embraced the sourdough, and he’s doing a great job, because I was doing it, and I couldn’t focus on that and the croissant,” Clint says.
Among their sourdough loaf varieties are honey oat ($11.95), cranberry walnut ($13.95) and ancient grain ($13.95).
The Jansons are all about supporting other local businesses. They get their coffee from Wacker Coffee Co., also in Deer Park, honey from Greenbluff Honey Farm, and flour from Shepherd’s Grain in Palouse.
Tim Wacker of Wacker Coffee approached the Jansons with his light and medium roast small-batch coffees, and after trying it and other popular local coffee roasters, the Jansons agreed that it was the perfect addition to their beverage menu.
From lattes ($5-$6.25) to Americanos ($4) to affogatos ($5), there’s a coffee beverage to suit anyone’s taste — the perfect pairing with a pastry. There’s also hot cocoa and steamers ($3-$4) for those who want a warm beverage without the caffeine.
Born and raised in Deer Park, Clint always envisioned running a business in the community.
Leaven is a bright, small space with floor-to-ceiling, street-facing windows. It’s reminiscent of a modern French bakery, with circular marble tables, white tile backsplashes and wrought iron bistro chairs.
The warm glow of industrial hanging lights and the exposed brick walls balance the clean white details, with the brick also nodding to the 1880-constructed building’s history.
Clint, a jack of all trades, made the white counters holding the bakery display case and kiosk.
“We wanted it to be clean and feel a little upscale, but we want to be approachable,” he says.
The bakery has a door to what will soon be the revamped Thai Garden, also under the Jansons’ ownership and set to open in the next few months.
“I wanted to bring something that Deer Park could embrace, but that would also elevate what people think of Deer Park,” Clint says. “We are not just this tiny farming community which we have been forever — and that’s great — but we are also a place where you can go and get really good stuff, and it’s good to be a part of that.” n
Leaven Bakery & Patisserie • 7 S. Main St. Unit B, Deer Park • Open Tue-Wed and Fri 7 am-2 pm; Sat 8 am-2 pm leaven-bakery.com • 509-710-4276
Leaven’s head baker Clint Janson
ALSO OPENING
BRAVE THE DARK
In Angel Studio’s latest drama, a high school teacher takes in a troubled homeless student with a dark past to help him get on the right path and avoid prison. Rated PG-13
FLIGHT RISK
Things get tense in this claustrophobic thriller, when a U.S. marshal (Michelle Dockery) and the high-profile informant she’s transporting (Topher Grace) realize their small plane is being piloted by a hitman (Mark Wahlberg). Rated R
PRESENCE
Director Steven Soderbergh’s latest cinematic experimentation is a horror film shot entirely from the first “person” POV of a presence that haunts a house observing the new family that moved in. Rated R
COLOR THEORY
The Colors Within is a beautifully understated anime film about music, friendship and youth
BY CHASE HUTCHINSON
About midway through Naoko Yamada’s The Colors Within, a sweet yet deceptively somber anime film about a group of youths who form a band, a song plays that surprised me to no end. The song in question was memorably and magnificently deployed in one of the most opposite films one could imagine: Trainspotting Without stealing this moment of its unexpected impact by revealing what is played, the song is a cover, a reinterpretation, yet still almost packed just as much of a punch while operating in its own quietly gentle register. Even as I’d heard the tune before, this cover created something new. This is, rather fittingly, an encapsulation of what makes The Colors Within such a joyous film. Though it tells a rather familiar comingof-age story, following the lonely young Totsuko (voiced by Sayu Suzukawa in Japanese and Libby Rue in English) as she connects with her former classmate Kimi (Akari Takaishi in Japanese and Kylie McNeill in English) and a new friend in Rui (Taisei Kido in Japanese and Eddy Lee in English) to form a humble band, it’s how it does so that makes it all sing. It’s a film in which color, both what it represents and how it is used, is everything. You settle into its rhythms as
you just watch the images being painted before you with poetic patience and loving care for the characters therein. Imagine that the also sweet recent film Sing Street was made into an anime and then brought to life with a fleeting yet still frequently astounding vibrancy, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of all that Yamada accomplishes here.
The Colors Within Rated PG
Directed
At the center of this is the ability Totsuko has to see people’s colors, a representation of their aura, though she is unable to see her own. As she goes through the motions of her days at a strict religious school for girls, she desires something more for herself and finds it in the band that she essentially stumbles into. Indeed, much of the film feels like pieces falling into place with an unhurried and unbothered pace. There are moments of humor as we see how Totsuko is both bursting with sincerity yet also deeply shy, just as there is a growing sadness to the experience. The idea of being able to see others so fully without being able to be seen by them, or yourself, is an appropriately moving metaphor writer Reiko Yoshida handles with subtlety and grace. All these kids, each with their own struggles, are trying to figure out life. Their band allows them to express
themselves in ways they don’t get to otherwise and, even as the film takes its time in letting them loose to play, the getting there proves to be a profound experience we take in along with them. It captures the transient beauty and tragedy of youth with such precision that it hurts.
When we all look back on this time, with its joys, pains and everything in between, one can only wish it will look and feel like how Yamada brings it to life here. In every breathtaking color, with one brushstroke cutting across the horizon and becoming the landscape knocking the wind out of you, a portrait is being painted that sneaks up on you before laying you completely flat. Much like the closing performance where the trio finally get to play together in front of an audience, you can never experience this for the first time again. Even as you may wish you could — that there could be just one more song to play — that’s not how life works. But the catharsis comes in getting to take it all in again in your memories, and The Colors Within delicately serves as a beautiful expression of that. When Totsuko sees herself, it’s a moment of triumph that sends you soaring. Just as the youths all fly in their own directions, they’ll always have the music they made and all of life’s beautiful colors they helped each other come to see for themselves. n
Youth’s rainbow of emotions comes to vibrant life in The Colors Within
Conspiracy Dreary
Cruddy espionage thriller Inheritance travels the world without going anywhere interesting
BY JOSH BELL
There’s a reason that Steven Soderbergh can grab an iPhone and a handful of actors and make a great movie in a short amount of time: He’s Steven Soderbergh. With his shoddy iPhone-shot espionage thriller Inheritance, director and co-writer Neil Burger proves that he’s no Steven Soderbergh, even as he’s clearly aiming to emulate sleek, suspenseful Soderbergh movies like Haywire and Kimi. Burger, a veteran of mid-level studio garbage like Divergent and Limitless, brings the same mediocrity of vision to this much lower-budget
apartment. It’s faux-edgy overkill to demonstrate that Maya is in a bad place emotionally. Her mother has just died after a long illness, and it doesn’t help that she spots her estranged father Sam (Rhys Ifans) at her mother’s funeral the next day.
The obviously shady Sam attempts to reconcile with Maya by offering her a job with his nebulously defined international real estate company, which requires her to travel to Cairo to meet with his associates. Almost immediately upon arriving in Cairo, she’s thrust into the middle of a clandestine operation she doesn’t understand, as Sam may have been kidnapped… or he may just be manipulating her into carrying out his illicit agenda. Maya travels from Egypt to India to South Korea, but she might as well just be walking through various NYC enclaves, for all of the unique flavor that Burger brings to each far-flung locale.
Rather than allowing for nimble globe-trotting adventure, shooting on an iPhone flattens out the various locations into one ugly digital backdrop, with no more visual flair than a hasty FaceTime call. Burger and cinematographer Jackson Hunt rely on awkward close-ups that seem like they’re meant to convey urgency but instead just look like the filmmakers couldn’t find anything else to place in the frame. There’s one makeshift car chase through the streets of Delhi, but otherwise the pared-down production shuffles from place to place without any momentum or action.
It’s not like the story is engaging enough to make up for the aesthetic shortcomings, either. The threadbare plot is full of holes, with Maya consistently evading capture via basic, easily thwarted means. Sam weaves in and out of the narrative, but otherwise there are no other characters of note, leaving Maya stranded in a vacuum, without enemies or allies. Her occasional interactions with suspicious strangers ultimately amount to nothing, which is the end result of the entire plot, too.
Inheritance
Rated R
Directed by Neil Burger Starring Phoebe Dynevor, Rhys Ifans
project, only without glossy production values to distract from the haphazard plotting and cardboard characters.
Burger does, however, have some star power in the form of Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor, although she never quite seems comfortable as a gritty, determined New Yorker. Dynevor’s Maya is introduced on a whirlwind self-destructive tour over the course of a single night — shoplifting liquor, dancing at a crowded nightclub, having sex with a random dude, then smoking a postcoital cigarette while dangling out the window of her upper-level
Burger and co-writer Olen Steinhauer craft such a flimsy espionage story that when a character discovers an all-important computer file, it’s literally labeled “covert-projects-report.pdf.” What covert projects are in this report? Neither Maya nor the filmmakers appear to care, and not in a cool, detached, mysterious way, but rather in a way that suggests no one has bothered to think any of this through.
Both Dynevor and Ifans struggle with their American accents, which adds to the slapdash feel, especially since there’s no real reason their characters needed to be American. They stumble clumsily through this facsimile of a spy thriller, with a chintzy-sounding electronic score and a Jason Bourne-lite conspiracy framework. Rather than energetic and innovative, the monotonous Inheritance merely comes off as a failed pretender. n
It takes a lot to make a spy movie this boring...
THE DARK VIBES RISES THE DARK VIBES RISES THE DARK VIBES RISES
THE
DARK VIBES RISES
“Ah you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it.”
— Bane
Spokane’s Chuck Vibes goes full Joker with his genre-blending postpunk on GTHM
BY SETH SOMMERFELD
Chuck Vibes was born in the darkness. The genre-blending Spokane musician lives in the sonic shadows. His music pulsates with an underbelly energy that blends a post-punk core with a modern hip-hop singing flair that can strike fear into the hearts of the cowardly and superstitious lot of complacent musicians. Some men just want to watch the world burn, but Chuck Vibes just wants to watch the world rage. He strives to achieve this master plan on his new album, GTHM, which hits the streets and dark alleyways via Corporat Records on Jan. 24. As the LP’s title suggests, Chuck has long leaned into the comic book iconography of Batman’s seedy hometown, and the new album leans into that dangerous spirit.
Chuck Vibes wants to be the musical hero Spokane deserves, and, hopefully, the one it needs right now.
The man behind the mask, so to speak, was not in fact born in the darkness, but he likes to keep his alter ego hidden like any good comic book protagonist. He was born in Spokane and grew up in Moses Lake. Unsurprisingly, he was big into comic books, action figures and the like as a kid, before starting to get into making his own music and remixes around age 14. While he initially started out as a rapper, his sound has evolved into a hard-to-pin-down stylistic amalgamation, which makes sense given his early music influences.
“At first, it was just the music I’d hear on the radio: The Fray, even bands like Maroon 5. I’d play video games; the soundtracks on a lot of wrestling games back then just had nothing but rock and shit like that. That was probably like
There is no such thing as a calm Chuck Vibes show. NOAH ROBBINS PHOTO
the biggest thing helped me figure out a sound eventually,” Chuck says. “And then, of course, I listened to a bunch of rap like Lil Wayne and
“Growing up, my family was a big gospel family – there was singing all over. A lot of old school music, like Curtis Mayfield and shit like that. Just everything, bro,” he continues. “So when XXXTentacion and Trippie Redd and them came out, the way they were singing on songs, it just sounded really cool the way they were doing it. I’ve always been able to sing, but I was always kind of afraid to actually sing on a track. So hearing them actually sing was like, ‘Alright, well, I can do this same thing, let me just
Thankfully, he didn’t need to fall into a cave of bats or a vat of chemicals to come up with his alternate identity. The name Chuck Vibes just comes from always wearing Converse Chuck Taylors during his formative high school days. And while it’s not a villain origin story, ridicule at
“All the kids at high school clowned me when I dropped my first song,” Chuck says. “And it was a bad song. I don’t really blame them. But I think that gave me a lot of confidence at the same time, just being able to take it. It made me want to do more.”
While Spokane might not be a metropolis, it can feel that way compared to Moses Lake, so Chuck moved back to Spokane when he was 19 and (with an obvious COVID pause) spent the next handful of years trying to find his true sound and get a footing in the local scene.
Left to his own devices, Chuck can be somewhat of a creative recluse, just staying in and working on the “hundreds and hundreds” of songs he’s got cooking.
“I guess I’m more like Bruce Wayne, not even Batman,” he jokingly remarks. “I’m more Bruce stuck in the house, just going crazy. [Laughs]”
As he shifted away from hip-hop to more a rock-based sound, he began looking for a band to help him achieve the live Chuck Vibes experience he desired. In late 2023, he linked up with the alternative instrumental group The Dead Feels after seeing the band play an open mic at the Checkerboard.
“What brought us together is a love of a lot of late 2000s/early 2010s rock,” says Sam McKinney, the drummer for The Dead Feels who also handles a pseudo hip-hop producer role for Chuck. “We had been playing covers from bands like The Black Keys, The White Stripes, and even some older Rage Against the Machine alternative rock stuff. Chuck’s really into that stuff. And then as we were introduced to him, we started taking the sound more in this darker post punk direction, a la Joy Division and things like that.”
By January 2024, Chuck Vibes and the Dead Feels were playing their first house show, and over the course of the past year, the collective kept playing extremely high-energy live shows and building buzz around town.
“Chuck brings a really, really energetic live energy to each song,” McKinney says. “You wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell by the track, but they’re all sort of bangers. One time people started moshing to one of the softest songs, and I was like, ‘Huh… OK. I guess that one is a mosher now.’”
“There’s beauty in the chaos,” Chuck says
of his live performances. “It’s almost like you’re in a gladiator arena. Like in Spartacus, he’s just in the middle, and he’s just looking around, and everyone’s just going crazy. That’s how it feels. … You could even say that’s when the Joker comes out. [Laughs]”
GTHM serves as a sort of sonic Bat-Signal in the sky to alert the masses that Chuck Vibes will soon be soaring through the night. In some ways, the new LP is a bit of a Two-Face. The first seven tracks are just a rerelease of Chuck Vibes’ 2023 EP I Wrote This in Gotham while the final eight songs are brand new tunes recorded in 2024. But the album still feels cohesive, in part because of how it thematically leans into the dark of the Dark Knight.
“I look at just where we live as Gotham. Like you’re always going through stuff, and it’s just a battle. I look at every situation, bad or good, as like you’re dealing with a certain character in Gotham. You’re always going through things, and you’re always trying to work and figure out things. That’s a big part of me and my sound — just trying to figure it out,” Chuck says. “It’s just very dark. That’s kind of how I look at a lot of things. It’s just like gloomy, you know? The feeling of wanting more hope is the theme in a lot of Gotham movies. And that’s how I feel.”
Musically, GTHM often feels as diverse and colorful as the Caped Crusader’s rogues’ gallery. Songs like “Ghostbusters” and “Dracula” have an atmospheric indie-rock-meets-autotuned-R&B feel that might call to mind artists like Post Malone. “Cranberry” broods with a sinister alt-rock creep. “Nightwing” almost has a chiptune energy to it. “My Ashtray Is Full” serves up a pure chaotic punk feel. It’s hard to know where the next BAM! POW! punch is coming from because Chuck is always keeping listeners on their proverbial toes.
On the newer tunes, McKinney employed old LinnDrum and DMX drum machines programmed in poppy rock patterns to give an upbeat base to balance Chuck’s often-melancholy lyricism. And Chuck uses his voice as an extra instrument throughout the album, layering various vocal sounds and whispers throughout to give proceedings an excitingly unnerving vibe.
While Chuck Vibes doesn’t have some master plan for world domination, he’s hoping to spread the gospel of GTHM far and wide this year via some touring (maybe he’ll recruit a few henchmen along the way).
That starts with an all-ages album release show for GTHM at the Chameleon’s Jaguar Room this Saturday, Jan. 25 (a day after he turns 25 years old). Chuck might not be 100% raging at the gig as he’s still recuperating after a knee injury, but if Batman could recover after Bane broke his back, it’s safe to say Chuck Vibes will at least give it a heroic effort.
With Gotham as his guiding darkness, perhaps a variation of a Harvey Dent quote would best sum up Chuck Vibes’ vigilante voice: You either Vibe a hero or live long enough to become a villain. n
Chuck Vibes and the Dead Feels: GTHM Album Release Show with Spooky, Cruel Velvet, Prodsynesthe • Sat, Jan. 25 at 8 pm • $10-$15 • All ages • Jaguar Room at the Chameleon • 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. • chameleonspokane.com
ROCK BURTON CUMMINGS
Thursday, 1/23
J BOTTLE BAY BREWING CO., Eric Kegley
CHECKERBOARD TAPROOM, Weathered Shepherds
J J KNITTING FACTORY, Mike Sherm
J QQ SUSHI & KITCHEN, Just Plain Darin ZOLA, The Dead and Down, Rōnin
Friday, 1/24
ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, Craig Catlett
J THE BIG DIPPER, Tomb Ripper, Misery Whip, Bent Outta Shape, Lich, Penis Envy
BULLHEAD SALOON, Neon Interstate
CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Side Step
THE DISTRICT BAR, Shwayze, Bikini Trill, Twin Fin
J THE GRAIN SHED, Haywire
THE KENWORTHY, Jon & Rand Band
J MARYHILL WINERY SPOKANE, Kori Ailene
NIGHT OWL, DJ Felon
J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Heat Speak Trio
RED ROOM LOUNGE, Live DJs
SPOKANE TRIBE CASINO, Stephen Pearcy of Ratt, Vixen ZOLA, Jason Evans’ Cosmic Fantasy, Sydney Dale
Saturday, 1/25
ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, Schauer with Friends
Burton Cummings has taken artistic integrity to the next level. He made his name as the frontman and co-songwriter for the legendary rock band The Guess Who, penning classics still in heavy rotation like “American Woman.” But last year he made the decision to make the unprecedented move to renounce his royalties in all forms in order to shut down a band that had been falsely billing themselves as The Guess Who for years. He quite literally put his money where his mouth is to protect his artistic legacy. So when Cummings swings by Spokane Tribe Resort & Casino to celebrate The Guess Who’s 60th anniversary by playing all the hits, you have a chance to directly support a creator who doesn’t just do it for the dough.
— SETH SOMMERFELD
Burton Cummings • Sat, Jan. 25 at 8 pm • $38-$89 • All Ages • Spokane Tribe Resort & Casino • 14300 W. SR-2 Hwy., Airway Heights • spokanetribecasino.com
DANCE CLUB 90S: ONE DIRECTION NIGHT
J THE BIG DIPPER, Better Daze, City of Ember, Thundergun Express, Her Memory
J BOTTLE BAY BREWING CO., Tonya Ballman-Lakewood
BULLHEAD SALOON, Neon Interstate
CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, David Allen and Friends
THE DISTRICT BAR, The Wild Feathers
J J J BONES MUSICLAND, Karli Fairbanks, Automatic Shoes, Timeworm
J J JAGUAR ROOM AT CHAMELEON, Chuck Vibes: GTHM Album Release
Show with Spooky, Cruel Velvet, Prodsynesthe
J KNITTING FACTORY, Club 90s: One Direction Night
J MIKEY’S GYROS, AJ.DJ, Blazer Mandrake, DJ Dave NIGHT OWL, Priestess
J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, AP Collective
RED ROOM LOUNGE, Live DJs
J SPOKANE TRIBE CASINO, Burton Cummings
ZOLA, Blake Braley, TJ Hoopes
Sunday, 1/26
HOGFISH, Open Mic
Monday,
1/27
RED ROOM LOUNGE, Open Mic Night
Tuesday,
1/28
SWING LOUNGE, Swing Lounge Live Music Tuesdays
ZOLA, The Zola All Star Jam
Wednesday,
THE DRAFT ZONE, The Draft Zone Open Mic
Sometimes the best way to mourn is by joyously celebrating what was. Formed 15 years ago across the pond in London, the five-piece boy band One Direction caused a commotion akin to Beatlemania during their peak powers. For some, 1D was everything. For others, a passing phase or an ironic interest. The band announced a “hiatus” in 2016, but fans quickly realized they’d never get back together. After the unexpected death of 1D member Liam Payne in late 2024, the nostalgia bug crept up on Directioners everywhere, reviving a once-dormant all-consuming adoration. Directioner or not, dance all night to the best songs ever and make some midnight memories at the Knit this Saturday when Club 90s: One Direction Night rolls through town.
— MADISON PEARSON
Club 90s: One Direction Night • Sat, Jan. 25 at 10 pm • $21 • 18+ • Knitting Factory • 919 W. Sprague Ave. • sp.knittingfactory.com
Featuring unforgettable plot points around ligers, chapstick, selling 32-piece sets of Tupperware and an epic solo dance sequence to Jamiroquai’s “Canned Heat,” no other film comes close to offering what Napoleon Dynamite gave film lovers 20 years ago. Similarly, this event provides hardcore Dynamite lovers the experience of a lifetime. Featuring Jon Heder (Napoleon himself), Efren Ramirez (Pedro) and Jon Gries (Uncle Rico), this screening of the cult classic film is followed by a moderated discussion with the three fan-favorite cast members. Ask pressing questions such as “Was the llama’s name really Tina?” or “Can Uncle Rico actually throw a pigskin over the mountains?” and “What does it take to build a cake?” Get your happy hands ready, and prepare for some badass nunchuck skills on the big screen.
— MADISON PEARSON
Napoleon Dynamite Live • Sat, Jan. 25 at 7:30 pm • $46-$77 • Fox Theater • 1001 W. Sprague Ave. • foxtheaterspokane.org
VISUAL ARTS MAKE IT YOURSELF
You’ve heard the saying “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure?” Well, at Art Salvage Spokane the saying should go “one person’s trash is also their treasure.” This weekend instructor Deb Ellis is teaching attendees how to turn their old calendars into a fun, hodgepodge journal, rather than disposing of it as trash. In this class, folks will learn to hand stitch their materials into a journal and decorate it, almost like a scrapbook. Those who register for the class will be provided with materials to use, but if you have paper scraps that would be perfect to reuse, you’re more than welcome to bring them.
— COLTON RASANEN
Hodgepodge Journal • Sat, Jan. 25 at 10 am • $15 • Art Salvage Spokane • 610 E. North Foothills Dr. • artsalvagespokane.com
COMMUNITY GONG XI FA CAI
While many have already put their New Year’s resolutions into action (or quickly forgotten about them), it’s time to celebrate yet again with the Lunar New Year on Jan. 29. The New Year on the lunisolar calendar has been a time for many Asian cultures to honor ancestors, gather with family and eat lots of great food. River Park Square, in partnership with Spokane United We Stand and the Spokane Chinese Association, welcomes the Year of the Snake with a free Lunar New Year celebration that features dragon and traditional Chinese dancers, martial arts demonstrations, Taiko drummers, a Year of the Snake headband activity hosted by Mobius, and more. So, here’s wishing you a happy Lunar New Year: Gong xi ni fa cai!
— DORA SCOTT
Lunar New Year • Sat, Jan. 25 from 1-2:30 pm • Free • River Park Square • 808 W. Main Ave. • spokaneunitedwestand.org
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WORDS NIGHTY NIGHT
Local author and illustrator Jiemei Lin is known for her distinctive art style, as well as her ability to convey sometimes difficult topics in easy-to-digest children’s books. Her previous title, The Rock in My Throat, a collaboration with author Kao Kalia Yang, tackled the topics of apprehension about speaking when English is not your first language. In Good Night, Zodiac Animals, Lin uses her signature cut-and-paste art style to teach children about the 12 zodiac animals associated with the Chinese lunar calendar. Filled with delightful rhymes, a touch of humor and bold imagery, the book is not only adorable but can serve as a child’s first introduction to the rich culture behind Lunar New Year traditions. Celebrate the author/illustrator’s newest work and the Lunar New Year at this book launch event.
— MADISON PEARSON
Jiemei Lin: Good Night, Zodiac Animals • Sat, Jan. 25 at 1 pm • Free • McConnell Mansion • 110 S. Adams St., Moscow • bookpeopleofmoscow.com
FILM A DAM GOOD MOVIE
There was no film released in 2024 as unique as Hundreds of Beavers. The ultra-independent feature from writer/director Mike Cheslik is essentially a silent, black-and-white, live-action cartoon bursting with next-level creative hijinks. The story centers on a 19th-century applejack distiller whose home and orchard get destroyed by beavers, leading him to go from hapless dolt to master hunter in order to seek revenge (and find love?) by creatively hunting the animals in the wintery Wisconsin wilderness… oh and all the beavers (and other critters) are just humans in big mascot costumes. The film becomes an inventive wall-to-wall visual gig factory that’s truly unlike any other modern movie, leading outlets like the Los Angeles Times and The A.V. Club to name it one of 2024’s 10 best films and the cinephiles at Letterboxd to rate it as the top comedy of the year. If absurdist slapstick comedy is your jam, heed the call of the beavers.
— SETH SOMMERFELD
Hundreds of Beavers • Fri, Jan. 24 and Sat, Jan. 25 at 7:30 pm • $10 • Not Rated (Rated PG in Canada) • Garland Theater • 924 W. Garland Ave. • garlandtheater.org
I SAW YOU
MAGICAL ....at best. I saw you swim out and save that dog last Summer, and you were wearing a DRESS!! I saw you hiking the bluff near Comstock last week, and you didn’t miss a beat in that icy stride. I heard you singing an other worldly version of a ’70s blues ballad by Brenda Russell, last night at a dive joint! Stunning!! Why in the heck do we keep crossing paths? (I left my number with that KJ after you had to dash out and pick up your friend from the base.) I want to swim and hike and sing with you. Your friend told me: “Those are, indeed, her favorite things to do, and yes she IS magical. You should hear her play piano!!” I hope you phone me so I can show you my favorite place on the planet. Your friend told me, you’d LOVE it. I’ll wait. - Mr. Guy in the Sky Blue Shirt -
SEXY GANJA GURU Cheers to the guru - after all these years I am still amazed with all of who you are and what you are capable of. You’re the best human out there. Hoping you see this in time for your big day, the 38th - love, DSH
CHEERING ME TO BUY A TYPEWRITER To the women who did a drive-by cheering me on to buy a vintage typewriter from the bed of Travis’ pickup outside Yoke’s (and to Travis for bringing it from Bellingham) - I’m writing stories with it now, and you made my day. What a fun confluence of characters, you ladies were so lovely and uplifting <3
CHANCE ENCOUNTER AT PARK The place: Spokane, Browne’s Addition Me: Tall, bespectacled, looks like he sunburns easily. You: An outdoorsy type with boundless energy, a flowing mane, and the rhythm of a dancer! I was enchanted by your tenacity as you bothered the neighborhood squirrels. The way you knocked down that toddler really resonated with me. Next time let’s ditch miss “stop looking at my dog like that” and traumatize some mailmen together.
CHEERS
SENIORS ABLE TO SAVE ON TAXES Great news. There is a bill in the Washington state Senate. SB 5020. If you or a spouse have reached the age of 75, you may be able to save on your property taxes. There are no financial restrictions. Read the bill, and if you like, please contact house and senate members to voice your support.
CHEERS TO THE LOVAS! Cheers to the lovas of Spokane and beyond -- I love you -- yes you!! Spread it as best you know how. Love yourself! Even give love to strangers -- put it on your sleeve! Be kind, love and love and love, love
THANK YOU, CITY GATE Sincerest thank you to all that have made City Gate a safe place for individuals experiencing homelessness and food insecurity over the last many decades. City Gate has provided not only a safe space for individuals experiencing homelessness,
all be missed and just know how many lives you all collectively changed and in the darkest of days brought a smile to so many faces. Thank you Pastor John, James, Buffy, Kathy, Jimmy, Dale and Eric and to all the volunteer staff in the kitchen as well as gratitude to all our folks experiencing homelessness who have helped in the kitchen and assisted in
but they have also provided a clothing and food bank, community resources, showers and two meals four days a week in the downtown area, volunteer and community services hours, as well as so many wonderful humans that have made City Gate-City Gate. Thank you, City Gate for the Alberta House and shelter rooms, which have provided so many individuals a chance to rebuild their lives and a safe place to lay their heads at night. You will
keeping the area clean. So many will miss you and the consistency you provided in our community. You all will be missed however not forgotten for all you have given to this community. Thank you!
JEERS
RE: TV PROPAGANDA Shame on the local station? Shame on YOU. Who are you to say the young transgender athlete does not have any consideration for the other female athletes? I’m not quite sure how one could accuse others of being so biased when you clearly lay out your biased opinion on trans people. Many more people are appeased to this story rather than “a small minority with gender dysphoria,” which you so eloquently said. The only thing wrong with this story
first develop a unique mindset. That name calling makes you seem even more incompetent and out of touch than you probably are. Second, people do care about expired license tabs. That’s why there are complaints in the local papers as well as other news stories about it. Third, as you indicate, people who have expired tabs pay more than other people
President Trump’s inauguration is NOT a first... during former President Nixon’s second inauguration in 1973 the flag was flown at half-staff to honor and memorialize the death of former President Truman. Hopefully they add those hours back so it adds up to a total of 30 days in hours
is the fact that someone like you felt the need to spread hate after watching an innocent story on the news. How about you put yourself in someone else’s shoes, maybe then you could see what an ignorant human being you are.
RE: REGISTER THIS To the idiot who wrote that “nobody cares” about expired license tabs and called the writer of the original jeer by the tired name “Karen,”
when they do license their vehicles. I’d add to that the statement many people may not be aware of. Law enforcement actually does impound vehicles that aren’t current within 45 days of the tab expiration. This event is initiated by people other than yourself who do care and report the illegal vehicle. This ends up costing the owner a lot more than the very inexpensive tab. So, it’s cheaper to license your car LEGALLY than to pay all the other expenses later. Duh! Duh! Dumb!
NO THANKS FOR OUR SERVICE Jeers to the City of Spokane for refusing to do anything about the continued vandalism of the Vietnam War memorial in Riverfront Park. We veterans of the Vietnam era suffered enough during our time; now the City won’t even bother to save our memorial? Probably the Mayor and the City Council are too busy spending their recent raises to pay attention.
FLAG CODE IGNORANCE I will be flying my flag at half mast till the 29th of the month, I will not disrespect the past president, to honor the incoming one, if the shoe was on the other foot, they wouldn’t do it either. In the early days of our country, no regulations existed for flying the flag at half-staff and, as a result, there were many conflicting policies. But on March 1, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower issued a proclamation on the proper times. The flag should fly at half-staff for 30 days at all federal buildings, grounds, and naval vessels throughout the United States and its territories and possessions after the death of the president or a former president. And for those unaware, the flying the flag at half-mast during
STATE FISCAL LUNACY Let me get this straight: The WA State government is facing a budget deficit -- the exact amount of which legislators cannot even agree on -- somewhere in the range of $5-12 Billion (with a “B”!) dollars as we start the new year. And now the WSDOT is going to be issuing “rebates” of up to $1,200 a pop for people to purchase e-bikes? Can they really afford to give away ANY amount of money in a program like this when the abyss of red ink is so large? To borrow a phrase from the pandemic, I would consider a giveaway for people buying e-bikes (which can be very expensive) a very “nonessential” fiscal expenditure. Sounds like Olympia could use a good dose of DOGE logic, but the Democrat majority and its outgoing governor were never known for being logical. Or responsible. Oh, if you are one of the beneficiaries of this government largesse, be very careful where you park and charge these lithium battery-powered conveyances. Spontaneous combustion and large, hard-to-extinguish fires are a known hazard of the power source. n
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EVENTS | CALENDAR
BENEFIT
WISHES & WINE: A TASTE OF SPOKANE
Taste the best the region has to offer in food, beer, wine, cider and spirits while supporting Wishing Star’s mission to provide hope for children and families facing life threatening illness. Cocktail attire recommended. Ages 21+. Jan. 25, 6-10 pm. $125. The Centennial Hotel, 303 W. North River Dr. wishingstar.org
COMEDY
JIM JEFFERIES Jefferies has been voted Stand-Up Comedian of the Year at the Just for Laughs Festival and currently hosts his own podcast, I Don’t Know About That with Jim Jefferies. Jan. 23, 7-9 pm. $49.75-$89.75. First Interstate Center for the Arts, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. firstinterstatecenter.org
STEVEN HO What began as a job in the ER for Steven Ho evolved into a job as a comedian, sharing honest content related to the ER and providing transparency and comedic relief around a place people often dread. Jan. 23-25, 7 & 9:45 pm. $30-$40. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com
CHOOSE TO LOSE A one-of-a-kind improvised game show where the audience calls the shots by choosing the players and games. Fridays at 7:30 pm through Jan. 31. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 319 S. Cedar St. bluedoortheatre.org
EXPEDITION: AN IMPROV ADVENTURE
A family-friendly edition of the popular Safari show featuring unscripted comedy skits and games. Saturdays at 7:30 pm
through Jan. 25. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 319 S. Cedar St. bluedoortheatre.org
PABLO FRANCISCO Francisco pulls out impressions and wit related to current pop culture in his stand-up comedy show. Jan. 30-Feb. 1 at 7 pm, Jan. 31Feb. 1 also at 9:45 pm. $24-$32. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com (509-318-9998)
DR. BRADY SMITH Smith delivers brutally honest life stories and outrageous tales from the dental world. Feb. 1, 4 pm. $27-$37. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com
COMMUNITY
MONTVALE EVENT CENTER OPEN
HOUSE An open house featuring vendors, catering samples, live entertainment, wine tastings, giveaways and more. Jan. 23, 4-8 pm. Free. Montvale Event Center, 1019 W. First. Ave. montvaleeventcenter.com (509-844-5672)
MAGIC FOR MUGGLES: CRAFTS & ACTIVITIES Celebrate the return from winter break in Hogwarts style. Explore crafts and activities, including charms, care of magical creatures, quidditch practice and more. Ages 5+. Jan. 23, 3:30-4:30 pm. Free. Otis Orchards Library, 22324 E. Wellesley Ave. scld.org (509-893-8390)
IT HAPPENED HERE: EXPO ‘74 FIFTY YEARS LATER This 50th anniversary exhibition revisits the historical roots of Expo ’74’s legacy. It incorporates recognizable elements from Expo’s built environment with museum artifacts and archival materials. Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm through Jan. 26. $7-$12. Northwest
Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org
THE BLUE ZONES: A MODEL FOR COMMUNITY HEALTH Learn about five places in the world where people consistently live to over 100 years old with David Milliken. Jan. 24, 6-8 pm. Free. Millwood Masonic Center, 3219 N. Argonne Road. meetup.com/friday-nights-at-the-lodge CABIN FEVER MARKETS Over 60 vendors from the Kootenai County Farmers’ Market gather in buildings 1-3 to sell produce, baked gods, plants, herbs, cheese, artisan crafts and more. Live music by Bill Bozly. Jan. 25, 10 am-3 pm. Free. Kootenai County Fairgrounds, 4056 N. Government Way. kootenaifarmersmarkets.org
EL MERCADITO A Latino cultural market featuring fresh food, cleaning supplies, local vendors, a free health clinic, immigration resources and much more. Last Sat of each month from 11 am-3 pm. Free. A.M. Cannon Park, 1920 W. Maxwell Ave. latinosenspokane.org/mercadito
FILIPINO FASHION SHOW: A LUNAR NEW YEAR CELEBRATION Celebrate the Lunar New Year with a unique fashion show presented by the Filipino-American Association of the Inland Empire. Jan. 25, 2-2:30 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org
LUNAR NEW YEAR A Lunar New Year celebration featuring cultural performances like dragon dances, tai chi, traditional Chinese dancing, taiko drumming plus family friendly activities. Jan. 25, 1-2:30 pm. Free. River Park Square, 808 W. Main Ave. spokaneunitedwestand.org
LUNAR NEW YEAR CELEBRATION: EXPERIENCE FILIPINO CULTURE Celebrate
the Lunar New Year with the Filipino American Association of the Inland Empire through a program of traditional cultural dances, music and more. Jan. 25, 1-2 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org
PFAS AND REAL ESTATE MEETING Local experts will explain whether PFAS will reduce your real estate tax bill, the legal duties of residential property sellers and realtors to disclose property conditions, the effects of PFAS on property assessments, and home well testing for PFAS. Jan. 27, 6:30 pm. Free. The Hub, 12703 W. 14th Ave. westplainswater.org
INTRODUCTORY PASSAGE MEDITATION WORKSHOP A meditation workshop for those seeking a deep spiritual path in contemporary times. Email or call to register. Jan. 28-Feb. 18, Tue at 6 pm. Free. Spokane Buddhist Temple, 927 S. Perry St. spokanebuddhisttemple.org (509-570-6876)
FREE PROFESSIONAL HEADSHOTS Visit the Video Studio at the Central Library to get a free headshot. Jan. 29, 12-3 pm. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
INNOVATIVE SCHOOLS FAIRE An opportunity for Spokane families to learn about innovative school options in the region. Jan. 29, 6-8 pm. Free. Innovation High School, 811 E. Sprague Ave. aierlearning.org (makalu1@earthlink.net)
BITCH ‘N’ STITCH Grab your crochet, knitting, embroidery, weaving, cross stitch, felting, looming, macrame, friendship bracelets and craft in the company of others. Every second and last Thursday at 6:30 pm. Free. Lunarium, 1925 N. Mon-
roe St. facebook.com/Lunarium.Spokane
A COMMUNITY PRACTICE: BLACK LITURGIES FOR STAYING HUMAN The program adapts Cole Arthur Riley’s Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human into a type of spiritual that draws quotes and insights from Black intellectuals, ancestors, authors and mentors. Jan. 30, 6-7 pm. Free. Liberty Park Library, 402 S. Pittsburgh St. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
MARKETING FOR CREATIVES Learn how StartUp Spokane tools can help with marketing your creative projects/products. Jan. 30, 5:30-6:30 pm. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main. spokanelibrary.org
MUSICIAN SELF-DEFENSE CLASS Music Education Specialist Andy Rumsey, provides a breakdown of inherent rights as a songwriter/performer and organizations which exist to help protect those rights. Jan. 30, 4-5 pm. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org
SUSTAINABILITY FORUM: BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE Explore the vital role of land conservation in sustainable architectural design, including insights and strategies for professionals in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries. Jan. 30, 5:30-7:30 pm. Free. Uptic Studios, 402 E. Sprague Ave. upticstudios.com (509-850-3698)
DESIGNING SPOKANE’S FIRST PUBLIC MEMORY GARDEN A memory garden is designed specifically for people living with dementia and their caregivers. Hear about efforts to bring one to Spokane. Feb. 1, 2:45-3:45 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org
EVENTS | CALENDAR
FILM
MOSCOW FILM SOCIETY: FANTASTIC MR. FOX A fox cannot resist returning to his farm raiding ways but must also help his community survive the farmers’ retaliation. Jan. 23, 7-9 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org
HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS A drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America’s greatest fur trapper by defeating 100s of beavers. Jan. 24, 7:30 pm. $10. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.org (509-327-1050)
MET LIVE IN HD: AIDA American soprano Angel Blue headlines as the Ethiopian princess torn between love and country in a new production by Michael Mayer that brings audiences inside the towering pyramids and gilded tombs of ancient Egypt. Jan. 25, 9:30 am-1 pm. $20. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main. kenworthy.org
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE LIVE A full screening of Napoleon Dynamite followed by a moderated discussion with fan-favorite cast members; Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite),Efren Ramirez (Pedro) and Jon Gries (Uncle Rico). Jan. 25, 7:30 pm. $46-$77. The Fox Theater, 1001 W. Sprague Ave. foxtheaterspokane.org
SING SING Divine G, imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men. Jan. 25, 4 pm & 7 pm and Jan. 26, 4 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org
SPOKANE JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
2025 A film festival focused on the tales of Jewish life, culture and history told from a broad range of perspectives. The weeklong festival features screenings, receptions, Q&As and more. Jan. 25-Feb. 2; see website for full schedule. Jan. 25-Feb. 2. $10-$70. Magic Lantern Theatre, 25 W. Main Ave. SpokaneJewishFilm.org
BLUE VELVET The discovery of a severed human ear leads a young man on an investigation tied to a nightclub singer and a group of criminals who kidnapped her child. Jan. 26, 7-9 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main. kenworthy.org
SAUL AND RUBY’S HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR BAND A documentary about two survivors who start a klezmer band, named the Holocaust Survivor Band in order to celebrate life. Jan. 26, 12:30-2 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org
MOVIE BOOK CLUB: THE WIZARD OF OZ Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are whisked by a tornado from Kansas to the Land of Oz. Jan. 28, 7-9 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org FREE FOR ALL: THE PUBLIC LIBRARY The premiere screening of PBS’ Independent Lens documentary, Free For All: The Public Library, followed by a discussion about public library’s featuring SPL Director Andrew Chanse. Jan. 29, 5:30-7:30 pm. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org
MOSCOW FILM SOCIETY: PORCO ROSSO In 1930s Italy, a veteran World War I pilot is cursed to look like an anthropomorphic pig. Jan. 30, 7-9 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main. kenworthy.org
FOOD & DRINK
CHILI COOK-OFF LUNCH Sample chilis from eight chefs and enjoy with cornbread and salad. Vote for your favorite
chili. Jan. 24, 12-2 pm. $10. Southside Community Center, 3151 E. 27th Ave. spokanesouthside.org
LEARN TO MAKE LUMPIA The beloved dish lumpia is a staple at Filipino gatherings and celebrations. Learn how to create this crowd-pleasing dish yourself. Jan. 25, 2:30-3 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org
WINE TASTING DINNER A three-course wine tasting dinner. Each course comes with a paired wine. Jan. 25, 5:30 pm. $68. Chewelah Golf & Country Club, 2537 Sand Canyon Road. chewelahgolf.com
MOMMY AND ME COOKIE DECORATING CLASS In this hands-on class you and your little one practice cookie decorating techniques. Jan. 26, 4-6 pm. $85. The Kitchen Engine, 621 W. Mallon Ave. thekitchenengine.com (509-328-3335)
COOKIE DECORATING AND ROYAL ICING MAKING In this hands-on class, learn the how-tos for baking soft, buttery and delicious cookies as well as making royal icing perfect for decorating. Jan. 27, 5:45-8 pm. $85. The Kitchen Engine, 621 W. Mallon Ave. thekitchenengine.com
DINNER WITH THE DOCTORS: BRAIN POWER HOUR An evening of dinner and discussion with the Clear Chiro Docs, where you’ll discover practical strategies to enhance your brain’s performance and overall well-being. Jan. 28, 5:30-7 pm. $30. La Belle Vie Event Center, 18507 E. Appleway. DWD2025.eventbrite.com
PUBLIC COOKING CLASS Learn how to cook with Commellini’s chef Frank in this hands-on cooking class focused on technique and skills. Jan. 29-30, 6:308:30 pm. $85. Commellini Estate, 14715 N. Dartford Dr. commellini.com
WINE TASTING Sample a curated selection of specialty wines from Italy, France, and Washington, while discovering the unique flavors each region has to offer. Throughout the tasting, chef will prepare small bites. Jan. 31, 2:30-5 pm. $5. The Kitchen Engine, 621 W. Mallon Ave. thekitchenengine.com
MUSIC
CELEBRATING FAMILY A concert by the North Idaho Youth Symphony with selections fitting the theme of “family.” Jan. 25, 7 pm. Schuler Performing Arts Center, 880 W. Garden Ave. niymusic.org
KEBERLE JAZZ MASS An originally composed jazz mass by Dan Keberle, retired Whitworth jazz professor, a jazz band and St. Mark’s Chancel Choir. Jan. 26, 8:30 am & 10:45 am. Free. St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 316 E. 24th Ave. stmarksspokane.org (509-747-6677)
INSIDE THE SYMPHONY: A JOURNEY INTO THE MODERN ORCHESTRA Gain insight into the journey musicians undertake to secure a place in the orchestra. Discover the roles of administrative staff who ensure the orchestra’s operation. Jan. 30, 5:30-6:30 pm. Free. South Hill Library, 3324 S. Perry. spokanelibrary.org
THE LOWEDOWN Come and listen to Spokane Symphony Music Director James Lowe as he gives an in-depth preview of each Masterworks he conducts. Jan. 30, 12-1 pm. Free. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org (509-456-3931)
VINYL POP UP SHOP Browse through a collection of records provided by The Long Ear while enjoying drinks. Feb. 1, 4-8 pm. Free. Coeur d’ Alene Cider Co., 1327 E. Sherman Ave. cdaciderhouse.com
SPORTS & OUTDOORS
LILAC CITY KENDO CLUB Classes for beginner and long-time kendo practicers. Every Monday and Thursday from 6:308:30 pm. West Valley City School, 8920 E. Valleyway Ave. lilaccitykendo.org
OPEN PLAY PICKLEBALL Play pickleball at the HUB. Every week Mon-Thu from 10 am-noon or 1-3 pm. $5.50-$7. HUB Sports Center, 19619 E. Cataldo Ave. hubsportscenter.org (509-927-0602)
CLUB SHRED Kids learn and practice ski skills with instructors and participate in fun activities like snow fort building, movies and more. Every Friday from 5-8 pm through March 14. Advance registration required. $49. Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, 29500 N. Mt. Spokane Park Dr. mtspokane.com (509-238-2220)
JUNIOR RACE SERIES A low-cost race series for young snow athletes with instruction and time NASTAR runs. Every Friday at 5 pm through Jan. 31. $35-$45. Schweitzer, 10,000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd. schweitzer.com (208-263-9555)
NIGHT RIDERS A nighttime ski/snowboard opportunity for intermediate athletes guided by instructors. Ages 8-17. Advance registration required. Every Friday from 5-8 pm through March 14. $25-$45. Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, 29500 N. Mt. Spokane Park Dr. mtspokane.com (509-238-2220)
SPOKANE CHIEFS VS. MEDICINE HAT
TIGERS Regular season game. Promotional schedule: Avista “Way To Save” poster series giveaway and full-team post-game autographs. Jan. 24, 7:05 pm. $12-$40. Spokane Arena, 720 W. Mallon Ave. spokanechiefs.com (509-279-7000)
TOYOTA FREE SKI FRIDAY Bring your Toyota, Scion or Lexus to Schweitzer and get a free lift ticket for the day. One free lift ticket will be given for each Toyota vehicle driven to the resort. Jan. 24, 9 am-3:30 pm. Free. Schweitzer, 10,000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd. schweitzer.com
HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS Witness the world record-breaking, trick-shot stars of basketball as they bring their signature spins, dunks and slams to the court. Jan. 27, 7-9 pm. $31-$117. Spokane Arena, 720 W. Mallon Ave. spokanearena.com
BACKCOUNTRY FILM FESTIVAL Look back at 20 years of winter sports films to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the festival. Jan. 29, 7 pm. $12. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org
GIRLS WITH GRIT SKI CLINIC This ski clinic focuses on improving skiing abilities like moguls, steeps, power slides, trees and confidence. Jan. 30, 9 am-2:30 pm. $375. Schweitzer, 10,000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd. schweitzer.com
SPOKANE BOAT SHOW Peruse a selection of boats, jet skis, boat and lake accessories and performances parts from a variety of vendors. Jan. 30-Feb. 2; Thu-Sat from 10 am-7 pm, Sun from 10 am-4 pm. $5-$10. Spokane County Fair & Expo Center, 404 N. Havana St. spokaneboatshow.com (509-477-1766)
THEATER & DANCE
SHIBARI AND FLOW: BLIZZARD Local dancers perform a winter-themed shibari burlesque show. Jan. 23, 7 pm. $30. The Chameleon, 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. chameleonspokane.com
SWEAT From the politically charged opening scene to its conclusion, Sweat boldly confronts issues of race, immigration, deindustrialization and the everslipping grip on middle-class life. WedSat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm through Feb. 2. $5-$30. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St. spokanecivictheatre.com
MUSICAL THEATRE DANCE REVUE A compilation of student choreographed and student produced musical theatre numbers. Jan. 24-25, 7-8:30 pm. $8-$15. Gonzaga University Magnuson Theatre, 502 E. Boone Ave. gonzaga.edu/dance
GREEK DANCING FOR BEGINNERS
Learn Greek dancing from Maria Koston. Wear loose clothing and come for a fun and invigorating dance. No experience necessary. Jan. 26, 2:30-3:30 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
LOVE, LIZ Will Elizabeth’s gal pals convince her that an illustrious marriage and an heir will quell her unruly heart, or will the flutters of her feelings for her rumored Romeo prevail? Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm through Feb. 9. $6-$26. Hartung Theater, 625 Stadium Dr. uidaho. edu/class/theatre (208-885-6465)
LIVING VOICES: THE NEW AMERICAN Through a captivating blend of dynamic solo performances and archival film, witness Bridget’s courageous journey from the cramped quarters of steerage to the gates of Ellis Island and the bustling streets of New York City. Jan. 31, 7-9 pm. $10-$15. Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave. artinsandpoint.org (208-263-6139)
VISUAL ARTS
FINN POND: TURBULENCE & FLOW
This exhibition features paintings that attempt to capture what’s at the heart of natural phenomena and beauty. Daily from 11 am-6 pm through Jan. 28. Free. Entropy, 101 N. Stevens St. explodingstars.com (509-414-3226)
1924: SOVEREIGNTY, LEADERSHIP AND THE INDIAN CITIZENSHIP ACT This exhibition commemorates the 100-year anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act and centers on photographs of early local tribal leadership as they and their people navigated the sometimes-conflicting nature of being both U.S. citizens and citizens of their own sovereign nations. Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm through Feb. 2. $8-$12. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org (509-456-3931)
THE ART OF FOOD: FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF JORDAN D. SCHNITZER AND HIS FAMILY FOUNDATION A collection of work showcasing how prominent artists depict food beyond mere sustenance and how food connects us through shared experiences and societal issues. Tue-Sat from 10 am-4 pm through March 8. Free. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, 1535 NE Wilson Road. museum. wsu.edu (509-335-1910)
JUAQUETTA HOLCOMB Juaquetta Holcomb uses locally grown alpaca and other wool to spin yarn and create fiber Daily from 11 am-7 pm through Jan. 26. Free. Pottery Place Plus, 203 N. Washington St. potteryplaceplus.com (509-327-6920)
CONNECTIVE STRANDS OF SPIRIT A group exhibition featuring works by Joe, Carly and Ryan Feddersen, William Passmore, Emma Noyes, Michael Holloman, Britt Rynearson, Michelle Jack and Frank Andrews honoring the Plateau people’s past, present and future. Thu-Sat from 4-7 pm through Feb. 1. Free. Terrain Gal-
lery, 628 N. Monroe. terrainspokane.com
EMANATIONS: JOHN DEROULET, KAREN MOBLEY, DENNIS SMITH, CAT TRUONG A multi-medium group art show featuring oil paintings by John DeRoulet and Karen Mobley, ceramics by Dennis Smith and sculpture by Cat Truong. Daily by appointment through Jan. 31. Free. Kolva-Sullivan Gallery, 115 S. Adams St. mobile.kolva.comcastbiz.net
JOSHUA HOBSON Joshua Hobson displays abstract photography. Mon-Thu from 10 am-4 pm, Fri from 10 am-2:30 pm through Jan. 31. Free. Boswell Corner Gallery at NIC, 1000 W. Garden Ave., Building 22. nic.edu/cornergallery
PORTRAY A POEM A group show of local artists who turn words into images to portray the heart and soul of a favorite poem. Daily from 9 am-5 pm through Jan. 25, 9 am-5 pm. Free. Liberty Building, 203 N. Washington St. potteryplaceplus.com (509-768-1268)
WHITWORTH ART & DESIGN DEPARTMENT FACULTY EXHIBIT An exhibit featuring art and work by Whitworth University faculty from the Art and Design department. Mon-Fri from 10 am-4:30 pm, Sat from 10 am-2 pm through Jan. 24. Free. Bryan Oliver Gallery, Whitworth, 300 W. Hawthorne Ave. whitworth.edu
SARANAC ART PROJECTS FRIENDS SHOW Saranac members invite a frien to exhibit up to two works in the gallery. Featured artists include Carl Richardson, Robin Nelson Wicks, Olivia Evans and more. Fri-Sat from noon-8 pm through Jan. 31. Free. Saranac Art Projects, 25 W. Main Ave. sapgallery.com
WOMAN, ARTIST, CATALYST: ART FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION Focusing on locally, nationally and internationally known women artists,, this exhibition of work showcases the quality of leading artists and art movements in the Northwest. Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm through March 9. $8-$12. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org
ART U.S.A.: ONE HUNDRED AMERICAN WORKS ON PAPER A collection of 100 pieces of art from the Jundt’s permanent collection depicting an expanse of American life from the years 1925-1950. Jan. 25-May 10, Mon-Sat from 10 am-4 pm. Free. Jundt Art Museum, 200 E. Desmet Ave. gonzaga.edu/jundt (509-313-6843)
LITTLE SPOKANE RIVER ARTIST STUDIO TOUR PREVIEW SHOW A preview of art by artists participating in the 2025 Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour. Jan. 26-Feb. 22, daily from 11 am-7 pm. Free. Liberty Building, 203 N. Washington. spokanelibertybuilding.com
PAPER MACHE BIRD WORKSHOP A one-day workshop in which kids are invited to create paper mache hanging birds. Jan. 24, 4-6 pm. $35. Emerge, 119 N. Second St. emergecda.com
HODGEPODGE JOURNAL Instructor Deb Ellis teaches how to reuse old calendars to make a journal. Jan. 25, 10 am. $15. Art Salvage Spokane, 610 E. North Foothills Dr. artsalvagespokane.com
MEET YOUR MAKER Meet the artists behind all of the items in From Here. Daily from 11 am-6 pm. See website for artist schedule. Free. From Here, 808 W. Main Ave. fromherespokane.com
ART CLUB Youth and families are invited to create together and explore the world of art. Every Friday from 4-6 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org (509-279-0299) …continued on page 46
Booze-Free Buzz
When it comes to infused beverages, these days there’s an option for everyone
BY WILL MAUPIN
Dry January may be coming to a close, but that doesn’t mean the time for alcohol alternatives has to end as well. Cannabis infused beverages are a great way to sip yourself a buzz without turning to booze.
From the corner store to your kitchen and even online, these days there are more options for THC tonics than ever before.
BUY IN BULK
Cannabis beverages have been around since the early days of Washington’s legal market back in 2014, but the category has seen an explosion in the years since the federal 2018 Farm Bill which legalized hemp across the country.
Recent years have brought a new wave of infused beverages, not from the type of cannabis we typically think of, but rather hemp-derived ones. Because these producers source their THC from hemp, they can circumvent the state-licenced dispensary system. These drinks can be purchased online and shipped straight to your door.
Brands like Cycling Frog and Wynk specialize in six-packs of sessionable seltzers. With THC contents as low as 2.5 milligrams per can, well below the common range of 10 to 100 milligrams available in stores, they’re great for people looking to have a few drinks over a night and dial in the perfect high.
SHOP LOCAL
Dispensaries around the region carry a variety of infused beverages from producers around the state. From high-potency shooters with 100 milligrams of THC in a 2.5-ounce container to single-serving 12-ouncers with 10 milligrams per container, and everything in between, the neighborhood dispensary will have at least a handful of options and flavors to satisfy your craving.
Whether you opt for the lower end of the potency range or go for the top, these products are typically made to be consumed straight from the bottle.
GET CREATIVE
You don’t have to be a cannabis chef or a mocktail mixologist to whip up your own refreshing infused tonic.
The edible category is dominated by readyto-consume products like brownies, gummies and drinks, but dig deeper on the shelves and you’ll find a number of individual ingredients as well. Spokane’s Grow Op Farms produces a line of infused sugars, with varieties from plain to pumpkin spice, that can be easily mixed into any beverage without tainting it with cannabis flavor. There are also numerous simple syrups available, as well as tinctures if you’re looking to add some grassy tones to your mocktail recipe. n
NOTE TO READERS
Be aware of the differences in the law between Idaho and Washington. It is illegal to possess, sell or transport cannabis in the State of Idaho. Possessing up to an ounce is a misdemeanor and can get you a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine; more than three ounces is a felony that can carry a five-year sentence and fine of up to $10,000. Transporting marijuana across state lines, like from Washington into Idaho, is a felony under federal law.
Ray’s Lemonade and Vice Cola are just some of the cannabis drinks available. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
moses Lake spokane otis Orchards
MAKER OPEN HOURS Stop in to ask questions, receive instruction, and work on your creative projects using our equipment. Available equipment includes the Glowforge 3D laser printer, laptops with Adobe Creative Cloud software, a sewing machine, digital media transfer equipment and more. All are available on a first-come, firstserved basis. Fridays from 10 am-5 pm. Free. North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Rd. scld.org
INTRO TO JEWELRY In this course, students pick from a variety of sample jewelry items to recreate and use as inspiration for their work. Ages 13+. Jan. 27, 5-7 pm. $53. Spokane Art School, 503 E. Second Ave., Ste. B. spokaneartschool.net
RECYCLE LAB: PAPER REMIX Create new paper from old in this hands-on workshop focused on recycling. Ages 10-18. Jan. 27, 4-5 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org
MULTI-MEDIA ART JOURNALING
WORKSHOP Explore the boundaries of your sketchbook by incorporating collage, drawings, texture or three dimensional elements into your daily journaling. Jan. 27, 6-8 pm. $35. Emerge, 119 N. Second St. emergecda.com
PAINT AND SIP: SNOWMAN HEARTS
Paint a snowman on canvas while learning how painting can reduce stress. Ages 10+. Jan. 28, 6-8:30 pm. $45. Iron Goat Brewing Co., 1302 W. Second Ave. artvana.life (320-805-0206)
HEARTISTRY: ARTISTIC WELLBEING
A relaxed and inspiring environmnt for self-discovery. Participate in basic artistic concepts and activities or respond to a mindfulness prompt. Every Tuesday from 3-5 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org
TUESDAY GALLERY TALK: Join a museum staff member or docent for an 20 minute informal discussion about one of our currently showing exhibitions. Every Tuesday at 11 am. $15-$20. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org
WATERCOLOR CLASS Learn the basics of painting with watercolors. Supplies included for first-timers. Open to all levels. Every other Tues from 10 am-2 pm. $20. Create Arts Center, 900 Fourth St. createarts.org
DROP IN & DRAW Join a creative community for this weekly free-form drawing program. Explore different artistic mediums, develop skills and ideas and cultivate imaginative thinking through art. All skill levels are welcome. Supplies and projects provided. Wednesdays from 5:30-7 pm Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org
SPINNERS WORKSHOP Bring your spinning wheel or current projects to work on. Every Wednesday from 10 am-noon. Free. Create Arts Center, 900 Fourth St. createarts.org
TOTS MESSY ART A messy art class meant for children ages 7 and under. Guardian must be present for the entire class. Every Wednesday from 11 am-1 pm. Free. Create Arts Center, 900 Fourth St. createarts.org
PATTERN PRINTING WORKSHOP In this linocut workshop Justus Brozek teaches attendees how to design and carve a linoleum block that can be used to print patterns onto paper and fabrics. Jan. 31, 5:30-7:30 pm. Free. The Hive, 2904 E. Sprague Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
OPEN STUDIO Stop by The Hive to see what current Artists In Residence are up to, and tour the building. Every Wednesday from 4-7 pm. Free. The Hive, 2904 E. Sprague Ave. spokanelibrary.org
PATTERN PRINTING WORKSHOP In this linocut workshop Justus Brozek teaches attendees how to design and carve a linoleum block that can be used to print patterns onto paper and fabrics. Jan. 31, 5:30-7:30 pm. Free. The Hive, 2904 E. Sprague Ave. spokanelibrary.org
COMIC DRAWING MEETUP Draw comics with fellow artists while drinking tea and eating treats. Every month on the first Saturday from 3-5 pm. Free. Lunarium, 1925 N. Monroe St. lunariumspokane.com
MEGHAN JONES Meghan Jones creates high realism paintings depicting unusual ocean animals. Feb. 1-23, daily from 11 am-7 pm. Free. Pottery Place Plus, 203 N. Washington St. potteryplaceplus.com
WORDS
ALPHABITS STORYTIME Share picture books, songs and get your child ready for school. Every Thursday at 10:15 am. Free. Moscow Public Library, 110 S. Jefferson St. latalibrary.org
BABES & BOOKS Stories, songs and activities for babies under 15 months. Every Thursday at 2 pm. Free. Moscow Public Library, 110 S. Jefferson St. latahlibrary.org (208-882-3925)
DROP IN & WRITE Aspiring writers are invited to be a part of a supportive writers’ community. Bring works in progress to share, get inspired with creative prompts and spend some focused time writing. Hosted by local writers Jenny Davis and Hannah Engel. Thursdays from 5:30-7 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org
HARMONY WRITERS GROUP A writing group focused on memoir and craft. Every other week on Thursday from 5:15-7 pm. Free. Liberty Park Library, 402 S. Pittsburgh St. spokanelibrary.org
AUNTIE’S BOOK CLUB: MYSTERY/ THRILLER (VIRTUAL) Discuss The Usual Silence by Jenny Milchman at the January meeting. This meeting takes place on Zoom. Jan. 23, 12-1 pm. Free. auntiesbooks.com (509-838-0206)
PAGE 42 FREE BOOK FAIR This annual book fair features over 20,000 free books. Jan. 24-26, daily from 10 am-6 pm. Free. Mayhem Supply, 6401 E. Sprague Ave. Page42bookstore.com
GOODNIGHT ZODIAC ANIMALS: JIEMEI LIN Celebrate the launch of Goodnight Zodiac Animals with author and illustrator Jiemei Lin. Jan. 25, 1 pm. Free. McConnell Mansion, 110 S. Adams St. bookpeopleofmoscow.com
LEYNA KROW: SINKHOLE AND OTHER INEXPLICABLE VOIDS Krow’s new story collection consists of stories of mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, wives and companions in a world that is constantly shifting around them. Jan. 28, 7-8:30 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main. auntiesbooks. com
SHELL OF A GOOD TIME: A HERMIT CRAB FICTION WORKSHOP In this workshop, experiment with different templates and structures to tell stories. Jan. 28, 5:30-6:30 pm. Free. Hillyard Library, 4110 N. Cook. spokanelibrary.org
BROKEN MIC A weekly open mic reading series. Wednesdays at 6:30 pm; sign-ups at 6 pm. Free. Neato Burrito, 827 W. First Ave. bit.ly/2ZAbugD
LINDSAY HILL: TIDAL LOCK Lindsay Hill unveils his latest novel, while Maya Jewell Zeller reads her original works. Jan. 29, 6-7 pm. Free. Liberty Park Library, 402 S. Pittsburgh St. spokanelibrary.org
PIVOT: HOT MESS Six storytellers share eight-minute tales on the theme of “hot mess.” Jan. 30, 7-9 pm. By donation. Washington Cracker Co. Building, 304 W. Pacific. pivotspokane.com
WRITE TOGETHER: A COMMUNITY WRITING SESSION Bring a project you’re working on and experience the joy and inspiration found in a community writing session with local novelist Sharma Shields. Jan. 31, 10 am-noon. Free. Indian Trail Library, 4909 W. Barnes Rd. spokanelibrary.org
POETRY BEFORE DARK EWU MFA students lead discussions about craft elements, style and form in poetry. Every Saturday from noon-2 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. sparkcentral.org (509-279-0299)
ARMCHAIR TRAVELERS SERIES:
HIKING EL CAMINO DE SANTIAGO: Stephen reminisces about his travels through the ancient Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. This series is designed for adventurous travelers who want to share their journeys and relive experiences allowing participants to explore destinations from the comfort of a chair. Feb. 1, 12-1 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
AUNTIE’S BOOK CLUB: QUEER & WEIRD Discuss Metal from Heaven by August Clarke at the January meeting. Jan. 25, 6-7 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks. com (509-838-0206)
STORY AND CRAFT A read-aloud of a popular children’s book will be followed by an optional craft related to the story. Ages 3-7. Every Saturday from 11 amnoon. Cost of admission. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org
SANDPOINT STORYMAKERS A group focused on helping creative people achieve their dream whether it’s a novel or a video game. Every Tuesday from 5-6:30 pm. . Free. Sandpoint Library, 1407 Cedar St. ebonnerlibrary.org
TEEN WRITE CLUB Teen writers are invited to get feedback on their work and explore all things prose and poetry. Every Tuesday from 5:30-7 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org (509-279-0299)
TOTS & TALES Share stories and songs while children learn important early literacy skills and socialize with other kids. Every Tuesday at 10:15 am.. Free. Moscow Public Library, 110 S. Jefferson St. latahlibrary.org (208-882-3925)
AUNTIE’S BOOK CLUB: AFTERNOON (VIRTUAL) Discuss The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury at the January meeting. This meeting takes place on Zoom. Jan. 28, 2-3 pm. Free. auntiesbooks.com (509-838-0206)
CREATIVE WRITING CLUB Stretch your writing skills with fun prompts, character creation, world building and more. Every Wednesday from 3:30-4:30 pm. Ages 8-12. Free. Moscow Public Library, 110 S. Jefferson St. latahlibrary.org n
GREEN ZONE
43. Cross
44. Mo. for National Moldy Cheese Day
45. Vainglorious one 48. “___ with caution”
49. Agcy. created by Bush
50. “Toxic” singer Britney
53. Acquired
55. “Thanks for being thoughtful”
60. “Love Boat” guest who once said “Many people think I am an idiot. I think I am a genius”
61. He’ll feed you a line
62. “___ of Confusion” (Genesis hit)
64. “Charade” director Stanley
65. Tabloid nickname of the “Y’all Ain’t Ready” rapper once married to 50-Across
66. Birth state of seven presidents
67. Mudville’s “mighty” failure at the plate
68. Radio bands with more music than talk
69. Totally insane, like some choices or opinions
DOWN
1. Agency founded to help fight malaria, for short
2. Streaming service with “This Fool” and “Tell Me Lies”
