Inlander 03/31/2022 by The Inlander

UKRAINE

How the war has rocked Spokane’s Slavic community PAGE 8

SPORTS

Gonzaga’s baseball team is making national noise PAGE 18

MARCH 31-APRIL 6, 2022 | POETRY ON THE PAGE SINCE 1993

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INSIDE VOL. 29, NO. 25 | COVER DESIGN: THOM CARAWAY

COMMENT NEWS COVER STORY CULTURE

5 8 12 18

FOOD SCREEN MUSIC EVENTS

22 26 28 30

I SAW YOU ADVICE GODDESS GREEN ZONE BULLETIN BOARD

32 34 36 39

EDITOR’S NOTE

oetry can be daunting. For someone who doesn’t regularly read it, let alone write it, it can seem a hard art form to get your head around. That’s why it helps to have a knowledgeable guide, as we do this week in guest editor and former Spokane Poet Laureate Thom Caraway, who once again takes the reins of our semi-regular POETRY ISSUE (page 12) to show us just how inviting poetry can be. This year, Thom reached out to some of our community’s most prominent poets to check in on words they’ve created since the start of the pandemic. And in the 10 poems inside this week’s Inlander, you’ll see just how inspiring, creative, funny and downright emotional poetry can be in skilled hands. And just how easy it is to connect with, too. Also this week, senior investigative reporter Daniel Walters explores just how Spokane’s Ukrainian community came be such a prominent aspect of life in the Inland Northwest (page 8), staff writer Carrie Scozzaro introduces a North Idaho bakery doing much more than making tasty treats (page 22), and Alyson McManus offers up a musical primer of trans artists as we celebrate International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31 (page 28). — DAN NAILEN, editor

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War on Wolves

The battle between humans and wolves — and local and federal officials — dates back to the mid-1990s. Today, the wolves, especially in Idaho, are losing BY JANE FRITZ

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Wolves are in the crosshairs far too often.

ooking back across more than four decades of living in rural North Idaho, I was never afraid of the wild. I could wander freely and felt deep joy knowing that I was intimately connected to the life around me. I heard the screams of cougars at night, or saw their fresh tracks in the light of my headlamp skiing home in winter’s early evening darkness from a part-time job in town. I embraced it all — even the scary parts like finding cougar tracks in the morning following my ski trail. Now in my early 70s, I don’t get out into the wild as often as I used to, but it’s not only because of growing older. I find myself being much more anxious because the surrounding environment is less friendly and inviting. This isn’t the fault of nature, however; it’s the domination of man. Hell, I might accidentally step into a trap intended to kill wolves if I wander off the

trail to get a better look at a native wildflower. Such a situation happened three times recently to owners’ dogs here on public lands, including one unmarked trap laid in the middle of a popular hiking trail. According to Chip Corsi, Idaho Department of Fish and Game regional director in Coeur d’Alene, traps can be legally set only 10 feet from the edge of any trail or unpaved road, but he doesn’t see this as a threat to public safety. After more than 25 years, I feel like it’s taking a giant step backwards into a disconnected relationship with nature once more. If we examine history, we might begin to understand what brought us to this point.

ack in 1995, many of us were excited about the possibility of wolves once more being in the wild and bringing the diversity of the ecosystem into integrity. Wolves had been completely wiped out some 60 years prior by humans, like everywhere in the West, largely out of fear, hate and ignorance. But that year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced gray wolves from Alberta, Canada, into Yellowstone National Park and Idaho. Despite providing core habitat, and after several years of contentious debate, Idaho wanted nothing to do with wolf management under the federal Endangered Species Act. As an environmental journalist and public radio producer, I had been following the Nez Perce Tribe’s participation in the reintroduction process for cultural and ecological reasons. Tribal leaders were hopeful for the return of the wolf, considered to be a close relative and important to them spiritually. So the Tribe stepped up to help restore this essential predator to Idaho’s wild lands. Respect for coexistence with wolves led to impressive population growth of the species. This success was a stark contrast to what would happen in 2008 when Idaho assumed control. After tens of millions of dollars of the nation’s taxpayer dollars were spent, Idaho’s “conservation management of wolves” became an opportunity to kill. Hunting and trapping wolves led to declining numbers. I remember when a wolf hunting permit cost around $7. Then in 2011, as a rider to an omnibus budget bill in Congress, and with no public discourse, the gray wolf was removed from Endangered Species protection in Idaho, as well as the rest of the Northern Rockies region. Since then, thousands of Idaho wolves have been killed by trappers, hunters and state-hired USDA Wildlife Services sharpshooters from aircraft. Professional hunters have killed entire packs in designated wilderness areas ostensibly to boost elk populations. Since 2017, an average of 472 wolves have been killed annually, more than a third of the yearly population; 170 of those have been in the Panhandle.

After tens of millions of dollars of the nation’s taxpayer dollars were spent, Idaho’s “conservation management of wolves” became an opportunity to kill.

orsi of Idaho Fish and Game says that despite this year’s drastic changes, around 250 wolves statewide and 50 in our region have been killed since last July. But the “no holds barred” scenario mandated by the Legislature doesn’t end until June 30. Wolves are not an easy animal to kill, Corsi says. They can hear up to 10 miles away, which is why trapping is an easier way to kill wolves than hunting them. In Yellowstone, however, wolves have learned to trust humans, which has contributed to a 20 percent decline this past winter as they stepped out of the park into Idaho and Montana only to be killed. It was the worst winter for Yellowstone’s protected wolves since 1995. Up to 90 percent of Idaho’s wolves are targeted to be killed. The Idaho Legislature has directed IDFG to eliminate 1,350 of the estimated 1,500 wolves, just shy of what would put them back on the federal Endangered Species List. This war on wolves cannot continue. We could learn a lot about being human from wolves if only given a chance. But our hatred and inhumanity toward our fellow species persists. Only the Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and new U.S. Fish and Wildlife director, Martha Williams, can step in and put wolves back on the Endangered Species List in Idaho and the rest of the Northern Rockies. They need to hear from you now. Your voice really does matter. n Jane Fritz is a longtime local journalist in the Sandpoint area. She is currently the media director, blog writer and podcast producer for the nonprofit education organization, Idaho Mythweaver, as well as for recent independent radio documentaries for Spokane Public Radio.

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MARCH 31, 2022 INLANDER 7

FROM LEFT: Ukrainian Spokane residents Olga Churkin, Anna Zinchenko and Mira Zobov, sell rice pilaf to raise money for Ukrainian humanitarian aid and to support refugees. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

UKRAINE

THE WAR BACK HOME The bombs exploding in Ukraine reverberate in Spokane, where tens of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian refugees now live BY DANIEL WALTERS 8 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

lexander Kulabukhov is up at 5 am on Feb. 24, jolted awake by the explosions in his neighborhood. As Russian artillery fire blankets their neighborhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine, the walls of Kulabukhov’s house shake. His terrified daughters are shaking, too. For the next four days, his family and their neighbors hide in their basements and cellars, dreading the next salvo, trying to decide whether to stay or flee. He’s a lifetime away from the child he once was, the kid who’d spend a day at the beach with his friend Tim, scampering up on the big logs used to mark the swimming area, diving into the water again and again. Tim left Ukraine when Kulabukhov was only 13. But now, as the Kulabukhovs leave behind their friends, their vehicle resale business, their school, their home, their country, as they flee across the Ukrainian border into Poland, that childhood friend has become the person who changes Kulabukhov’s fate — and maybe even saves his life. ...continued on page 10

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NEWS | UKRAINE “THE WAR BACK HOME,” CONTINUED... Kulabukhov calls Tim Oberemok, now owner of a thriving family-owned trucking company in Washington state, and asks if there’s any way Tim can get him and his family to Spokane. “I knew if there ever was a difficult situation, Tim will be there,” Kulabukhov says. He recounts all this, sitting in the office of Roller Valley skate center, a Spokane Valley business owned by Tim’s wife, Zhanna, a Ukrainian refugee who immigrated to Spokane back when the Soviet Union fell in 1991. Russia’s invasion of its East European neighbor has flooded Spokane’s Slavic community with waves of outrage and grief as they’ve watched their friends and family in Ukraine come under siege. It’s also ignited a flurry of humanitarian activity, including efforts to bring a lot more Ukrainians like Kulabukhov to Spokane. “The Ukrainian people are like mighty eagles with their wings clipped,” says Zhanna. In America, she suggests, they can truly fly.

Part of it’s the weather, Kaprian suggests; like Ukraine, Spokane gets all four seasons. Some of it might be the existing mix of ethnicities, including Americans with Slavic and Russian roots, which made it easier to fit in. But most of all, it’s that immigration has a way of snowballing: The more Ukrainian families in Spokane, the more connections they have to any Ukrainian immigrants looking to move to America. The Ukrainian immigrants in Spokane don’t just hear about the war from the news. They get dispatches from the front from their friends and their family. Violet Tsyukalo, who left Ukraine when she was 2, hears about a family friend who went from teaching theology classes to making Molotov cocktails in a basement. She hears from friends trapped in central Mariupol in southeast Ukraine, with no electricity, no power, no gas. The thin stream of water coming out of their faucet feels like a miracle. Mira Zobov, who immigrated to the United States when she was 16, learns about how her former neighbors in Kharkiv are in their kitchen with friends — just down the block from Zobov’s old home — when a Russian Smerch rocket smashes through their bedroom ceiling. She watches the Instagram video of the aftermath. She hears from her aunt who can see rocket launchers outside her home in the Kharkiv countryside, but who refuses to leave, preferring to “just trust in God,” and stay with her chickens, dogs and cats. Oleksandr Tarasiuk, who immigrated here just four years Pastor Alex Kaprian cried after watching a bridge where he fished as a child in Ukraine get destroyed. DANIEL WALTERS PHOTO ago, is waving Ukrainian and American n most ways, Sunday’s service at Pastor Alex Kapriflags at the Lincoln Statue on Saturday. He hears from his an’s Pilgrim Slavic Baptist Church can seem indistin52-year-old mother-in-law in eastern Ukraine, who sleeps guishable from other Protestant churches downtown: under her table every night. One day, the fighting during There’s the children’s choir filled with squirmy kids the siege of her city was so intense, she fled to the forest wearing adorable bow ties, the variation of the hymn nearby and stood there in the dark all night. “How Great Thou Art,” the impassioned sermon, the In parts of the local Slavic community, this kind of slideshow of missionaries passing out Bibles in Cuba shared horror and grief can be a uniting force, even with and the announcements urging parishioners to donate to some of the local Russians. Tsyukalo says she knows humanitarian work in Ukraine. Russians who planned some of the pro-Ukrainian rallies The big difference? The entire service is delivered in Spokane. in Russian or Ukrainian. Since so many Ukrainians, But there are also local Russians who take Putin’s including Kaprian, came here as refugees fleeing the side. Zhanna Oberemok says this tension isn’t new: Soviet Union’s religious discrimination, these often very There are stories of fistfights breaking out in local conservative churches serve as the backbone of one of the churches when the first Russian-Ukrainian conflict began biggest Slavic communities in the country. in 2014, she says. Kaprian, who spent two decades working in refugee “It’s a huge challenge for the pastors to keep the services for Washington state, estimates that there are peace,” says Zhanna. around 50,000 Russian-speaking people in the Spokane So when Russia invaded this year, Kaprian says he area. did the same thing he did in 2014. He called together all “I joke sometimes that only the KGB knows the exact the Slavic pastors in the area, and they agreed to a shared number,” he says. set of principles: They would agree to oppose war — as But if his guess is accurate, Spokane has about as Christians, they were opposed to bloodshed — but they many Slavic people as Black, Asian, American Indian, Pawouldn’t take sides; they would focus on humanitarian cific Islander and multiracial people in Spokane County aid, whether it be Russian lives or Ukrainian lives, but combined. wouldn’t get into politics.

10 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

But at times, Zhanna suggests, that taboo can feel suffocating. “You know what is on every single person’s mind,” Zhanna says. “People are coming with their hearts pierced to the soul. But you can’t really talk about it in the Slavic churches.” Yet there’s no question the war weighs heavily on Kaprian, too. When a rocket in Ukraine hits a car full of men trying to deliver supplies to a church drug rehab facility, some of his friends are among the four killed. But the messages Kaprian hears from those in Ukraine are neither the heroic Ukrainian propaganda splashed across Twitter nor the drumbeat of Russian disinformation blasted out from Russia Today. He hears accounts of atrocities committed by soldiers from both Ukraine and Russia, of the carnage wrought on civilians by both Russian artillery and Ukrainian munitions. “War is war,” he says.

t first, Tarasiuk wants to go back to Ukraine to fight in the war himself. He and his wife argue about it for a week. She cries. They have children — including the little boy in the Baby Yoda shirt waving the yellow and blue flag with him at the Lincoln statue downtown Saturday. Eventually, Tarasiuk concludes he can do more good here, simply by raising money and wiring it to Ukraine. Across the entire Slavic community, Ukrainian immigrants and their allies scramble to find ways to aid both the Ukrainians suffering in the war and the newly arrived refugees. They launch a website at SpokaneHelpsUkraine. org, sell T-shirts, cook rice pilaf and hold “Roller Skate for Ukraine” roller rink nights to raise money. Beside the tip jar at the Ukrainian-owned Cedar Coffee, blue-andyellow ribbons sell for $3 apiece to contribute to the fund. They collect food, medicine and clothing as well — over 6,000 pounds — though they’re still trying to figure out the best way to get such a big delivery to where it’s needed. Aleks Kutsar and Pavel Turovskiy, Spokane residents who immigrated from Ukraine decades ago, say that God told them to go to Poland to help. They rent a warehouse in Poland, buy two cargo vans, and ferry food essentials like flour, rice and oil to the Ukrainian border. They also rent a house, which they use as a temporary shelter for the flood of new refugees into Poland. “They’re still in shock,” Kutsar says over video chat from Poland. “We try to comfort them as much as we can, but there is not much we can do.” Other local attempts to aid Ukrainians are messier. Former Spokane Rep. Matt Shea, married to a Ukrainian immigrant, flies to Poland and ventures into western Ukraine to pick up nearly 60 orphans who had fled Mauripol. But Shea’s defiant interactions with local Polish authorities, connections to a far-right Polish pastor, and the decade of controversial headlines — including an investigation that accused him of participating in domestic terrorism — sparked a kind of firestorm of rumor and controversy in Ukraine. Soon, the story was being covered by not only the Seattle Times and Rolling Stone, but a slew of local Polish news outlets as well. Polish radio reporter Anna Gmiterek-Zabłocka tells the Inlander that she was concerned about whether Shea — a “good manipulator,” she says — is attempting to indoctrinate the children. In her own interview with Shea, she says, he left out the fact that he was trying to adopt four of the children from the orphanage. Kaprian says that Shea called him and asked him to ask his congregation if there were any teachers willing to go to Poland for several months to teach the children

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The team behind SpokaneHelpsUkraine.org has raised nearly $49,500 to date for war-torn Ukraine. from the orphanage. (The Polish government has committed to educating Ukrainian refugees, though their sheer numbers have strained their school system.) Kaprian has also asked his congregation if they’re interested in adopting the children from the orphanage, but is frustrated that the Ukrainian government won’t allow adoptions currently. He says there’s no ulterior motive to the Slavic community’s efforts to adopt the children. “The motivation is very simple,” Kaprian says. “We love God. We love people. We love children. And we love especially orphans who are in need.”

connections to all six of the refugee families here at the rink. Getting here didn’t just mean escaping their war-torn cities, it meant getting across the Ukrainian border — no easy task, considering it’s technically illegal for Ukrainian men to leave today. Once they got to Poland, they couldn’t go directly to the United States. Instead, Zhanna says, they flew to Mexico, then drove to the American border, showing their Ukrainian passports, and were granted humanitarian parole — a visa status to live in America, at least temporarily. Last week, President Joe Biden announced the United States would be taking 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. Advocates like Kaprian and Zhanna Oberemok are waiting to learn what that means for the long list of families that could come to Spokane. Meanwhile, Kulabukhov, Tim’s childhood friend, is eager to start his new life. “We want to get our driver’s license, we want to get our Social Security numbers figured out, and we want to start learning English,” Kulabukhov says. “We want to get jobs.” But it’s hard, too. Spokane’s housing crisis makes finding places for refugees to live particularly difficult. His kids are showing signs of homesickness. His son misses the Ukrainian soccer field. His daughter misses her music classes. Zhanna remembers what that’s like, to be a young girl thrown into a wildly different culture in a foreign land, far away from her home. But she also remembers the way her Coeur D’Alene elementary school threw her a surprise birthday party — the first real birthday party of her life — complete with a Little Mermaid cake, little party hats and a massive present filled with dozens of books donated by her classmates. “At one point, we were on the other side of the spectrum,” Zhanna says. “We came literally with nothing but a suitcase to this country,” Welcoming more Ukrainian refugees is her way of paying that kind of generosity forward. “It really is living the American dream,” Zhanna says. n

“We want to get our driver’s license, we want to get our Social Security numbers figured out, and we want to start learning English.”

he bullet comes to a stop just in time. Irina Sapielkna’s just outside of Kharkiv in northern Ukraine — only 60 miles from the Russian border — trying to escape with her family, when she hears a hail of gunshots. One bullet punches through the car door and the driver’s seat — through steel and plastic and fabric and upholstery and three layers of clothing — and it hits her in the back. But it doesn’t go deep enough to seriously wound her. Sapielkna’s daughter later finds the bullet embedded in the car seat, plucks it out and throws it away. And now, Sapielkna and her family are safe in Spokane. She’s at the Roller Valley rink in Spokane Valley, along with the Kulabukhov family and four other new Ukrainian refugee families. Sapielkna’s grateful. She’s alive. For now, she says, she’s put the trauma of escape behind her. She smiles and beams as she holds up her bloody shirt with the bullet hole. Her son is sleeping, slumped over beside her next to a big slice of roller rink pizza. Zhanna says she and her husband, Tim, have

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MARCH 31, 2022 INLANDER 11

Thom Caraway, poet and print master.

PENNED DURING THE PANDEMIC

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Hope, loss and community connections as Inland Northwest poets share works created since the COVID outbreak BY THOM CARAWAY, GUEST EDITOR

hat always strikes me about Spokane’s poetry is the range. We are fortunate to have so many excellent writers in our community: poets, essayists, memoirists, biographers, translators, historians, novelists, historical novelists… the works! It’s an embarrassment of riches, really. And in the past, when the Inlander has asked me to edit a poetry issue, we have opened the call to all writers, known or unknown, and those have been really fun issues to put together. This time, though, I wanted to hang out with old friends. In this time of uncertainty and transition, when we may never again find the old normal, I reached out to poets I knew or had seen perform around town in the Before Times. I admit it was partly selfish: I wanted my favorite familiar voices. And invitations are so fraught, which I soon realized. Who was I leaving out? For every familiar voice I wanted to hear from, which unfamiliar voices were still implicitly silent? Have I further reinforced the not-unjustified charge that the arts in Spokane can behave cliquishly? Perhaps I have. I wonder if in the two years we have been hunkered down in pods, we have enclosed ourselves too tightly, and I look forward to a version of our lives where those circles can loosen again,

12 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

and I can walk into Neato Burrito and hear the bright new voices of the poetry community, wander in and out of readings at Get Lit! (coming back during National Poetry Month!), and just revel in the great communities that make up the arts in Spokane. Back to this issue, though. As always, narrowing the selections is difficult, but I’m quite pleased with the range of voices we hear from in this issue. From the intertextual innovations of Nance Van Winckel to the prose forms of Janelle Cordero, the elegant precision of Kat Smith, John Whalen, and Maya Jewell Zeller, and the heartfelt lines of Chris Cook and Shann Ray — this issue demonstrates the vast depth of what these writers offer to our city. I’m pleased to publish Caleb Mannan, a descendent of Vachel Lindsay’s itinerant outsider tradition, and Spokane pole stars Mark Anderson and Laura Read. The only “theme” we charged the poets with was “written during COVID,” and I marvel at what they have done. For vast stretches of the last two years, I felt incapable of writing, estranged from language and community. I’ve sometimes felt that words were insufficient to the ongoing traumas we’ve collectively and privately

experienced. Within that context, current Spokane Poet Laureate Chris Cook’s emotional tribute to Spokane fixture Dennis Held pairs well to the metaphorical loss in Caleb Mannan’s “I lost my knife in the Flathead River.” Both Held’s and the knife’s sentimental value take on mythic proportions in an era in which so much has been lost, and neither feels forced or inauthentic. In these years, we’ve hopefully become more connected to the inner workings of our communities and our selves and identified what is truly important. The previous poetry issue came out in early April 2020. I was still thinking this whole COVID thing couldn’t last more than a couple weeks. Now, two years later, we’re opening things back up more fully. We may never return to the Before Times, and in many ways, that’s good and right. I can chart many positive changes in the last two years, awarenesses raised, solutions found. We are reconfiguring around things that matter, shaping new processes for things we previously took for granted. Some things remain, and among the most important are our artists and writers. I hope you enjoy these beautiful voices, reckoning as only poets can, with the world we find ourselves in. n

THE LAUREATE OF VINEGAR FLATS

I LOST MY KNIFE IN THE FLATHEAD RIVER

For Dennis Held

I lost my knife in the Flathead River on a downstroke from my oar, clipping it from my hip where my leg swung in the water over the bowel of the raft.

CHRIS COOK

He’ll miss a lot of things, many of them small and fleeting-things that his words have given a permanence. His poems about Vinegar Flats take me back to when I lived there in the 80s in a farm house overlooking Hangman Creek (they don’t call it that anymore). I remember a big rock in the middle where a great blue heron always fished, the water so strong and mesmerizing that some days, the creek was fixed, and the heron, the rock, and I were moving upstream. And Harlow Hotrum, our unofficial neighborhood mascot; Steve Adams’s glass studio; Wayne Ueda’s dad’s auto shop; The Japanese farms; and Vinnie’s Victorian house on the corner where I learned to milk goats; where the band rehearsed, the chick singer teleporting lyrics across space and time, taking us to the banks of the Wabash, far away; pleading for hard times to come again no more— lyrics sung above a creek where just last week, after a decades-long absence, I saw that the heron’s fishing rock had eroded, was now smaller than before. The water and the music and the poetry flow out of Vinegar Flats, and nothing gets in their way. Chris Cook is the current Spokane poet laureate and a trumpet player for the Spokane Symphony (among other things).

IN WHICH THE POET TRIES TRANSLATING HAN-SHAN (COLD MOUNTAIN), NO. 79: MAYA JEWELL ZELLER

Imagine solitude, leaving the earthly houses for a stage of sky, where no one’s talking. A gibbon cries a cold river of fog high on the mountain where rough crags are all you see. To turn a leaf, or loosen the pine to your grave— to open the moat calling, springing from the mountain— already you rest, willing to leave work forever— you choose to lie down, outlast it all, in this glade of ferns. Maya Jewell Zeller is an educator and author of poetry collection Alchemy for Cells & Other Beasts. mayajewellzeller.com

CALEB MANNAN

CONNECT THROUGH WORDS On Saturday, April 2, at 12:30

pm, a crew of Washington’s most prominent poets is gathering for a free celebration of National Poetry Month. “Poetry and Civic Life” will include readings and conversation and features current state poet Poet Laureate Rena Priest, Spokane’s Tod Marshall (a former state poet laureate himself), Seattle Civic Poet Jourdan Imani Keith and Seattle Youth Poet Laureate Zinnia Hansen. The group will discuss the power of poetry to explore social change, and while you’d have to be in Seattle to take part in person for the event at the Hugo House, you can livestream “Poetry and Civic Life” at tvw.org. (DAN NAILEN)

I knew it before it happened and after, turning to watch it sink forlorn black grip twisting glistening down to the clear smooth boulders below as the current whisked us on. I told my wife and kids that I almost went in after it but quickly got a grip. Now it rests in the cold swift water tucked between otherwordly stones alone at the bottom of the Flathead River, never to be found. Caleb Mannan is an author, visual artist and musician living in Spokane. facebook.com/calebmannanauthor

OUR YEAR OF UNBECOMING MARK L. ANDERSON

It is a good day when the fight is not yet over. If it is a good day

We pour a goblet of mead, set an extra place at the table. We are all friends

we may look to the million reasons of the sky and see rather than

in death, so perhaps — O thin wisps of history — you may be the great discoverers

a lightning flash, a forgetful cloud kingdom. We can say,

of how so many of us have gone so wrong. No one is perfect. But why not?

“so that is where our ghosts went.” What relief. We’d already checked

Of course, the ghosts must be tired, curse us for not offering them coffee.

the cupboard. It is a good day when we let that be the end of it.

Apologies. They slam what passes for fine porcelain to the floor, levitate

It is a bad day when we hope as wax dripping on skin. “Burn my hair, buttercup,”

a chair or two, and we really can’t blame them. It is a good day when we see

we say to the flame, calling on the ghosts to arbiter our disputes.

the weariness in their eyes as they struggle to remember who they are, and we may think

Worm-worshipped, the holes in their skin have been filled with dusk,

they mouth the word “sorry” before departing like wind to the aloof stars, feigning

and their clothes, rag-like, embarrass us in their dated fashion. We hold

understanding beyond the scope of language to let us down gently. It is a bad day

family photographs, beaming, and tell them we’re all grown up now.

when they give us the answers we crave.

It is a bad day when we argue whether to let the bleeding stop.

Mark L. Anderson was Spokane’s third poet laureate and his first poetry collection, Scarecrow Oracle, arrives in May.

MARCH 31, 2022 INLANDER 13

Experiencing poetry in Spokane is easy with this handy guide

pokane poet laureate Chris Cook kindly shared a bevy of resources for the curious to explore poetry in the community. Naturally you can always visit your favorite locally owned bookstore and get some tips, or simply explore the aisles until you find a favorite. And after you’ve read Cook’s contribution to this issue, as well as those of his poetry peers, get out there and explore with his handy guide.

IN PERSON WEEKLY  3 Minute Mic. Poetry open mic every First Friday

at 7pm at Auntie’s Bookstore (402 W. Main Ave.)  Broken Mic. Poetry open mic every Wednesday

at 6:30pm at Neato Burrito (827 W. 1st Ave.)  Drop in and Write! Writing workshop every

NANCE VAN WINCKEL

Tuesday 5:30-7pm at Spark Central (1214 W. Summit Pkwy).  Speak Easy. Poetry open mic every Tuesday at

7pm at Bijou on the South Hill (2910 E. 29th Ave.)  Poetry Scribes of Spokane. First Wednesdays of

the month at 1 pm at the North Spokane Library (44 E. Hawthorne Rd.)  Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers. First

Thursdays of the month at 2:30pm at the Golden Corral (7117 N. Division). Visit spokaneauthors.org for details.

ONLINE AND ON THE AIR  In the Neighborhood. Spokane Arts’ commu-

BETTER FOR IT JANELLE CORDERO

He remembers the trouble he got into as a kid, like riding his bicycle through the flowerbeds or shooting his brother in the leg with a BB gun or stealing cigarettes from the pack his grandfather kept in his coat pocket. His mother believed in spankings and other forms of corporal punishment, but she never did the disciplining herself. “Wait until your father gets home,” she’d say, and he’d nod and hang his head and maybe sniffle a little. It was all a ruse. His father would return home by dinnertime smelling of sweat and sawdust from the jobsite, and his mother laid out the day’s crimes like a practiced attorney. He and his father would go into the den while his mother made clanging sounds with pots and dishes and whatever else in the kitchen—she didn’t want to hear the wailing. She was too sensitive, if you can believe it. His father loosened his belt and lifted his eyebrows. “Ready?” he would ask, and the boy would nod. They’d done this many times before. The father thwacked his leather belt on the table one, two, three times, and with each thwack the boy cried out, as if in pain. After, the boy ran from the room and nursed fake tears for ten or fifteen minutes while his father consoled his mother, who always felt terrible about the whole thing. Guilty, you could say. She was gentle with the boy for days after, and more forgiving of his antics. The boy and his father grew closer, too, after these episodes. The boy behaved properly for a while thanks to his father’s generosity, and the father felt good knowing he’d saved the boy from violence, from the swat of his own large hand on the boy’s backside. After the war, the father never carried a gun again in his life. He wasn’t a pacifist, exactly, but he was through with hurting people. “Don’t cry,” he’d tell his wife. “The boy will be better for it.” And he was. Janelle Cordero is an educator, visual artist and poet; her most recent poetry book, Many Types of Wildflowers, was published in 2020. janellecordero.com

14 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

nity-based online poetry project. Read poems inspired by Spokane neighborhoods at spokanepoetry.com  Small Batch Poetry. Every first and third

Wednesday at 11am. A generative poetry workshop-style radio show on Spokane-based tpgradio.com  Spokane Open Poetry Program Saturdays at

11am on KYRS Thin Air Community Radio 88.1 FM and kyrs.org.  The Poetry Moment. Weekdays at 9am on

KPBX, Spokane Public Radio, 91.1 FM and kpbx.org

ANNUAL POETRY-FRIENDLY EVENTS AND SERIES  Get Lit! Festival, April 21-24. Visit inside.ewu.

edu/getlit for schedule  Gonzaga University Visiting Writers Series.

Search gonzaga.edu for upcoming events  Terrain. Annual art/music/literature event held

first Friday in October. Follow terrainspokane.com for updates  Poetry Picnic. Annual summer event at Moran

Prairie Library, 2022 date tbd.

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I am trying to remember what my face used to look like so I can draw it on.

Every weekend, you’ll find live music at the Nighthawk Lounge with local bands playing past midnight. For a more relaxed vibe earlier in the evening, choose the option of live acoustic music in the Chinook Lounge.

I am trying to decide if I’m really at work or if this whole thing is imagined. The only lights on in the building are the ones that come on when you walk into a room. I walk into many rooms for their silent applause. It’s weird how you have to keep moving or they turn back off. Then I get up from my desk and walk around or just accept the dark.

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I realized something important about myself then. I do circle my eyes in eyeliner and draw on my eyebrows and straighten my hair and pluck the mole above my lip even though it will be under my mask. Once I asked my son if the mole was unsightly, and he replied that it was Not Ideal. Now when something is Not Ideal, I point at my upper lip.

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After I teach in my mask, my throat hurts, and I have to lie down. When I get home. I feel the way I used to feel when I was pregnant. My body was making another body and needed to concentrate.

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I lie in my bed under my wool blanket but not under all the covers. Because I’ll be back in it soon, and I want it to feel different. My kids are grown up. I am inside that, like Jonah in the whale, and then together, the whale and I are inside the Pandemic. The furnace comes on, and sometimes this is comforting. But sometimes I feel we are too close, me and the furnace. I mean, shouldn’t it come on sometimes without my knowing? I was always frightened by Jonah and the Whale. It seemed unlikely to me that if a whale swallowed me, I would ever get out. Laura Read is an educator and poet and was Spokane’s second poet laureate. laurareadpoet.com

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ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT Shann Ray explores his Montana roots through poetry alongside photographer Craig Hergert’s images in new book

16 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

VANESSA KAY PHOTO

CITY OF DREAMS, EK BAPTISMA SHANN RAY

BY CARRIE SCOZZARO hen most of us have given ourselves over to sleep, Shann Ray is giving himself over to the process of writing. More often than not, Ray writes in pencil on a piece of plain white paper, typically between 10 pm and 1 am, knowing he can work through the darkness into the wee hours as needs demand. “There’s an ancient idea that ‘God dwells in the thick darkness,’” says Ray, who teaches leadership and forgiveness studies at Gonzaga University. “I love that idea,” he says, his eyes flashing, a smile resting on the right side of his mouth. “And all ancient traditions honor light which, of course, without light none of us would be here,” adds Ray, whose work often explores both the dichotomy of good and evil and the permeable membrane between these inextricable forces. His process is nonlinear, Ray says. His work includes poetry like Atomic Theory 7, prose like the award-winning American Copper, and scholarly works. The form might be secondary to the content that moves him, including his beloved former home of Montana. “I think more of music and rhythms, you know: water, land and sky,” Ray says. “Those things are just in me.” Ray recently completed two works. The Souls of Others is a collection of essays, poems and other writings, some of which have appeared in such publications as LitHub, High Desert Journal, and the Inlander. Montana Panoramic: Transparent in the Backlight is a collaboration with Bozeman-based photographer Craig Hergert that encapsulates Ray’s fascination with light, both its physical manifestation of epic vistas and its metaphoric potential. “[Montana Panoramic is] meant to honor the full complexity of the Montana landscape, which is a real echo of the American landscape,” Ray says, adding that the subject is “fraught with questions, difficulty, the concepts of making things right, the concepts of atonement… life and relationships, forgiveness… love.”

Shann Ray has two new books in the world.

he 402-page hardcover book begins the visual journey near the Bozeman-area Missouri River headwaters prominent in so many historical narratives, and one of many places Ray lived in his youth. It follows the Yellowstone River east, moving counterclockwise through the state. Along the way, Ray’s words offer a sense of the people who might inhabit these lands. “If a person reads the poems that run through this whole book, it reads a little bit like the story of a human family humbly in the natural world,” Ray says. The book is both poetic and oblique, and although not a novel, it definitely has a beginning, middle and end, Ray says. “And it certainly takes people down into the depth of our ability to love and our ability to fracture and our ability to come back to one another.” The book concludes with a quick visual trip down Montana’s western flank to Dillon, site of the infamous Battle of the Big Hole. For most of the book, Hergert already had images, but after reading Ray’s essay on Big Hole, Hergert knew he needed to reshoot something to match the emotion of Ray’s writing. Ray’s “In the Heart of the Mountains” recounts the atrocities that befell the Nez Perce at Big Hole, where U.S. troops slaughtered as many as 90 tribal members, mostly women and children. Chief Joseph escaped, however, and in recent times, one of his female descendants, Deer Park resident Robbie Paul, has invited descendants of the military involved to participate in a sunrise healing ceremony at the site. A person can pick up the book and look at great pictures, Ray says, “but if they want to read through it, they’ll get a bear attack, they’ll get fishing, and genocidal history and the nature of forgiveness inside Montana and America, which is a gift.”

Somehow we arrived from the four corners during the upsweep of diseases inlaid like flowers on the marble surface of our bodies. When we breathed in Bombay in the half-light our breath spiraled into the dark of new Mumbai. Not ours I mean but the mothers’ from the brothels in the bridgework of Turbhe. In late February the birds in their millions swept the sky black with words no one speaks, or rather words only the mothers of small rooms sing to separate us from ourselves, returning us to each other, and who are we to behold them, and who are we to put our scarred hands under the water of their prayers calling us sister, God’s lioness, beloved of heaven, friend.

Ray’s writing about light also inspired the subtitle of the book, according to Hergert, who initially approached Ray only to write the book’s foreword. The men were already familiar with each other’s work: Ray had sought Hergert’s permission to use some of his photos on his website, while Hergert admired Ray’s award-winning collection of short stories, American Masculine. Ray wrote about something every driver in rural areas and mountain roads understands: white crosses on the roadside “transparent in the backlight.” The terms — both of which also related to photography — resonated with Hergert, who asked if Ray would contribute more writing to accompany Hergert’s 300-plus photos. The subtitle of the book, Ray says, resonated with his sensibilities, too. “We can’t really hide our evil or our good,” he says. “It’s pretty much transparent.” n

HAY, Thanks!

DRUMHELLER SPRINGS

BEST ALL AROUND BAR

JOHN WHALEN

We arrived late afternoon after a day of masked errands and ten feet from the car found bitterroot crowning a basalt outcropping. Above us the sun freed itself from dense black clouds. In the meadow above the springs camas were still flowering. More bitterroot and wild onion were just beginning to bloom. The creeping phlox with its tiny blue flowers shone. And fleabane daisies. Small campion. My wife takes more and better photos than I am able. Does it more mindfully and with a better camera. I limped along the path to scout one last blossom, maybe, to capture on my phone and text to my daughters to prove I was up and around, outside in the weather. In my luck that Saturday, waiting, I considered my sin of getting older, of getting by. Choices I’ve made—things I’ve said or done that delivered pain—cut through me, Sometimes though, sometimes, I lucked out—marriage, daughters, these flowers. I considered the Spokans, the thousands of years the tribe made camp here. Stopped for fresh water on the way from salmon runs at the falls north to the Little Spokane River. They gathered balsam root, bitterroot, camas, wild onions.

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I crouched to peer at bitterroot popping from the rock. With no notion of deserving grace, my spirits lifted. Huckleberry, thimbleberry, serviceberry: a ladybug upon the purple-blue camas.

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UPDATES ON THE CIRCUMSTANCE KATHRYN SMITH

The maples in blossom, leafing out, swallowing the wasp nests I’ve tracked all winter. Soon I won’t remember what I’m looking for.

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Flowering quince stops me in my tracks. The idiom is “dead in my tracks,” but I’m trying to stop talking about death, even if it’s just a metaphor. Especially if it’s a metaphor. I keep missing the last patches of sunlight. I see it somewhere in the distance, hitting the street, but I cannot make it fall on me. Things were going horribly. When they got better, I began to fully inhabit my body. I do so much breathing in and breathing out. The trains in their insistence, even this far from the tracks. Sometimes I feel so much urgency inside my chest, like breathing can’t possibly be enough. Kathryn Smith published Self-Portrait with Cephalopod, in 2021. kathrynsmithpoetry.com

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SPORTS

MORE THAN

HOOPS

Gonzaga pitcher Gabriel Hughes (left) and catcher Stephen Lund are helping the team make noise in the national rankings. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

18 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

After months of elite-level play on the road, Gonzaga baseball comes home to make a College World Series push BY SETH SOMMERFELD

nce again, Gonzaga scheduled a brutal nonconference slate. Sure, they didn’t run through the early season unblemished, but they still picked up more huge wins than losses and showcased once again that they belong among the elite programs in the country. And they’ve got the national ranking to prove it. Yet some naysayers still dismiss the program hailing from a tiny Jesuit school in Spokane. What’s that? You’re sick of this Gonzaga basketball story you’ve heard a million times? Well that’s good, because we’re not talking about Zags hoops here. Their season is over. It’s Gonzaga baseball’s turn to take the spotlight. The college baseball season has been underway since February, but it’s understandable if it’s totally off the radar for local sports fans. Because of Spokane’s chilly weather, Gonzaga baseball always has to start the season playing a plethora of road games against teams in warmer climates. But the Zags finally get to play their first home series of the year — after a one-off weekday matinee home opener against Oregon last week — when the Pepperdine Waves come to town April 1-3. For baseball fans impatiently waiting for the labor-negotiations-delayed opening day for Major League Baseball, the Bulldogs are here to fill that stitched-seamed hole in your heart. And there’s a chance this is the best baseball team in GU history.

efore playing their first home game, Gonzaga amassed an impressive 14-4 record (the team is currently 16-6, ranked No. 17 in Baseball America’s College Top 25). And despite a roster boasting 18 new players, that record didn’t come against a creampuff schedule. The victories included road wins against Missouri and Cal, a sweep of Cal State Fullerton, and, most impressively, a sweep of Oklahoma State (ranked No. 4 at the time of the series). “I think [we show] up with the idea that we could beat anyone, anywhere, with any pitcher on the mound,” says Gonzaga pitching ace Gabriel Hughes. “Going into Oklahoma State, it was kind of a series that we were expected to lose. And we go in there, sweep them at their place. And after that, it kind of became like, ‘OK, who can’t we beat?’” There’s no debating the key to the Bulldogs’ early season success — the team’s pitching staff. Led by Hughes (who doubles as the team’s best pro prospect, No. 31 on Prospects1500’s list of “Top 100 NCAA Division I Prospects”), Zags pitching has been lights out during nonconference. The squad boasts a stellar team ERA of 3.96, with the Friday/Saturday/Sunday starter combo of Hughes, William Kempner and Trystan Vrieling being a truly formidable three-headed monster. (In addition to the ping of metal bats, one thing that differentiates college baseball is that pitching staffs are structured around weekend series — with the Friday starter usually being the ace, Saturday starter being the second best arm, etc.) They’re an aggressive bunch on the mound. ...continued on next page

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CULTURE | SPORTS

The Oregon Ducks tagged a loss on the Zags in their home opener.

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“MORE THAN HOOPS,” CONTINUED...

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20 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

“The thing I like the most is just the challenge mentality that [the pitchers] all have,” says catcher/designated hitter Stephen Lund, the lone Bulldog position player to make the Preseason All-WCC Team. “They never shy away from anything, and they’re always looking to challenge, which is really awesome as a catcher.” “[The starting pitchers have] been outstanding. And they’ve kept us in games, while we had a chance to figure out some of these issues offensively,” says GU head coach Mark Machtolf, in his 19th season. Gonzaga’s offense is, admittedly, more of a work in progress. With so many fresh faces, it’s been hard to develop a consistent offensive rhythm against the prime-time arms they’ve faced in nonconference. The team also isn’t exactly loaded with power bats, only mashing one home run in their first nine games. So how has Gonzaga kept up the winning ways? They grind. It’s stringing together a few singles, working the strike counts, taking walks and employing sacrifices advantageously. If you’re the type of baseball fan that bemoans modern big-league baseball just being about home runs or strikeouts, these Zags are for you. “As a team, we always have a philosophy of being an efficient offense,” Lund says. “In our mind, hitting a sac fly with a guy on third is just like hitting a solo home run. It is just as valuable. It still counts for one run. And we’re all celebrated, just the same.”

fter months on the road, the Zags opened the home season against Oregon on a cold gray Tuesday afternoon in late March. While GU boasts one of the best staffs in baseball, it was actually everyday third baseman (and one of the team’s best bats) Cade McGee on the mound. It wasn’t an easy outing for McGee, giving up three earned runs to the high-powered Ducks over 3.1 innings, but he did flash a little Shohei Ohtani by blasting a home run later in the game. And typical of this Gonzaga team, despite falling behind 8-2 by the 4th inning, they just kept grinding and even had the bases loaded down four runs in the bottom

of the ninth before ultimately coming up short and losing 9-5. It was a disappointing start to the home slate in Spokane, but with 14 more home games on the schedule, there’s plenty of time to get on a roll at home. The players are certainly happy to be back in the Inland Northwest. “Love traveling. Love seeing a lot of different parts of the country. Love seeing the sun go down in California. But it’s gonna be nice to take a breath, kind of take a step GET OUT TO back and get THE BALLGAME into a rhythm,” The cost of seeing the Bulldogs Hughes says. on the diamond is a steal. With eyes on another SINGLE GAME TICKETS West Coast $13 Adults Conference title $10 Seniors/Military/Youth and a break(12 and under) through appearance in the SEASON TICKETS College World $50 Individual Season Ticket Series, this $100 Family Pass year’s Gonzaga (2 Adults + 4 Youths per game) baseball team understands they have a chance to make a statement both to Spokanites who overlook them and the national sports audience that only views Gonzaga as a hoops factory. These Zags are ready to emerge from the substantial shadow that the basketball team casts. “Yeah, definitely as a team we kind of have that as a little edge,” says Lund. “We know we can play, and we’re also nationally ranked. It’s one of our unwritten kind of goals — we’re trying to also put Gonzaga baseball on the map. We just want to show the country what we can do. [So that] everybody kind of realizes, ‘Oh, wow … It’s more than just a basketball school.’” n Gonzaga Baseball Home Opening Series (vs. Pepperdine) • Fri, April 1 & Sat, April 2 at 6 pm; Sun, April 3 at noon • $13 • Patterson Baseball Complex and Coach Steve Hertz Field • gozags.com • 509-313-6000

CULTURE | DIGEST

PLAYING CATCH UP

THE BUZZ BIN

My first time … playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time BY JAMI NELSON

’ve been a casual gamer since high school but never got around to playing any of the original Legend of Zelda games. My first experience with the beloved series was quite pitiful, actually. I tried playing Twilight Princess on the Wii but froze at the sight of a bulblin, a goblin-like creature whose only goal is to whack you with a club. It took me a few months to work up the courage to give the simple battle another shot. I eventually warmed up to the game but never finished it. Years later, however, I raved over the franchise’s most recent and critically acclaimed open-world game, Breath of the Wild. Whenever I mention how much I love the story and gameplay of Breath of the Wild, it’s often followed with, “Have you played Ocarina of Time?!” Well, no. Despite being born the same year the fifth game in the Zelda series was released (1998), I’ve never laid eyes on what’s considered the best Zelda game — much to the bemusement of fellow gamers. Their astonishment is backed by the fact that Ocarina also tells the origin story of Link, Hyrule Kingdom’s bravest warrior, and the character who gamers embody as they play the Zelda series. Before Ocarina of Time, fans had little knowledge of the history of Hyrule, its Princess Zelda and the story’s hero, Link. Ocarina of Time has been rereleased since the Nintendo GameCube era, with versions compatible with almost every Nintendo console. So, I decided to dive into the origins of Link and Hyrule.

ormally I consume video games through my gaming laptop or Nintendo Switch. Going from a Switch

to a 3DS handheld device posed some challenges, the biggest being the camera controls. I’ve been spoiled with the Switch having left and right control sticks — the left for navigating the character and the right for the camera view. It’s a perfect design for modern video games. But the camera in Ocarina of Time is terrible. Understanding the automatic camera angles and aiming became my true first quest. But once I got past these horrendous mechanics, I couldn’t put the game down. A fairy ocarina — a vital tool in the game — is a magical instrument that opens hidden passages, charms villagers and plays sweet music. To defeat the evil king, Link (ie. you, the player) uses the fairy ocarina to collect three spiritual stones from different regions of Hyrule and the much more powerful ocarina of time. Simple enough, right? Psych! There’s a whole other piece to the story, but you can play for yourself to find out. Despite the dated graphics and lack of guidance, getting to explore a simpler map of Hyrule compared to Breath of the Wild was refreshing. I was able to focus on the story and characters, which is one of my favorite things about the franchise. I loved playing through this game — the plot twists and gameplay — despite the terrible camera. It was fun getting to finally enjoy such a monumental game in The Legend of Zelda franchise history. I finally understand what the Ocarina hype is all about — this was the missing link to my favorite video game fandom. I’m excited to download the next chapter in the Zelda series, Majora’s Mask, and continue playing. n

Finally discovering the missing “Link.”

FUELING THE FRENZY “How did they get so much money from people?!” is the question driving TV right now. After bingeing Netflix’s The Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna, I popped over to Hulu, where THE DROPOUT is keeping the money grab drama going. Based on the true story of failed startup Theranos, which promised to disrupt the medical industry by performing hundreds of tests with a single drop of blood, the story proves yet again that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Amanda Seyfried shines as founder Elizabeth Holmes, who convinced investors to dump millions without ever seeing a working prototype. New episodes drop every Thursday. (SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL)

PICTURING THE AMERICAN WEST The Prix de West is to Western art what the Academy Awards are to film. Held at the 50-year-old National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, the awards are a big deal. They catapulted the career of Harrison, Idaho-based artist George Carlson, who has won 33 Prix de West awards, including top prize. Twice! See his vision of the Western genre in the new 352-page tome titled GEORGE CARLSON: THE AMERICAN WEST. Visit the publisher’s website, rizzoliusa.com, to find the nearest bookseller. (CARRIE SCOZZARO) THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST Noteworthy new music arriving in stores and online April 1: PUP, THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND. The melodic and frantic Toronto punk band with a morbid sense of humor returns with more songs ideal for wail-alongs in the mosh pit. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, UNLIMITED LOVE. Guitar wizard John Frusciante rejoins RHCP for the first time (on an album) in 16 years, reconvening the Cali band’s best lineup. THOMAS RHETT, WHERE WE STARTED. The pop country star (17 No. 1 singles and counting) returns with more dusty songs that go down easy, including a collab with Katy Perry. (SETH SOMMERFELD)

MARCH 31, 2022 INLANDER 21

OPENING

It Takes a VILLAGE

The Village Bakery owner Dana Bellefeuille helps her employee Nikki decorate a chocolate cake. ALYSSA HUGHES PHOTO

A new North Idaho bakery offers “uniquely abled” employees the opportunity to excel BY CARRIE SCOZZARO

he Village Bakery doesn’t look like much from the outside. Only the bakery’s logo — two people highfiving, one of them in a wheelchair — suggests the business might be unusual, which it most definitely is. When the Village Bakery opened on New Year’s Day, it offered all the kinds of things you might expect: a rotating variety of cupcakes ($3), macarons ($2.50), cinnamon rolls ($4), and cake pops ($2.50). Hungry for something savory? Try a ham and cheese croissant ($4) or baked mac-and-cheese ($6.95). But the Village Bakery also offered something more: opportunity, kindness, and above all, acceptance. “When you walk in here, the feeling of happiness just exudes from the building,” says Janet Waterdown, one of a growing network of volunteers vital to supporting the Village Bakery’s unique mission of providing on-the-job training for special needs populations. Janet decided to volunteer at the bakery after her adult daughter, Abbey, got a job there and needed transportation.

22 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

Abbey has always loved being in the kitchen, Janet explains. But doing anything substantive with her passion? That’s been a challenge for Abbey, who’s one of an estimated 41 million adult Americans with a recognized disability, according to 2019 census data (the CDC puts the number closer to 60 million, or one in four adults). “I just never really found somewhere that I felt was a good fit for her,” Janet says. That changed last fall when Abbey reached out to the Village Bakery’s founder, Dana Bellefeuille, whose past baking experience includes working at the Coeur d’Alene Resort and Bardenay Restaurant and Distillery. “Abbey,” Bellefeuille calls out to the kitchen from the sunlit dining area. It’s near closing time on a Tuesday, and Abbey is behind the counter cleaning up her station. “What color is the cutting board for vegetables?” Bellefeuille asks her. “Green,” Abbey answers, without hesitation. And white for pastry, yellow for chicken. As Bellefeuille pep-

pers her with questions about food safety, Abbey nails every response. Abbey’s mother smiles, her eyes glistening. “Everyone has noticed such a change in her,” Janet says. If and when Abbey wants to take the test to receive a food handler’s license, which is not required for kitchen staff in Idaho, Bellefeuille will pay for it. “Test taking is hard,” says Bellefeuille, who struggled with dyslexia growing up, yet parlayed a lifelong interest in baking into a successful career.

ince 2004, Bellefeuille has made a name for herself as a custom cake designer, sought-after pastry chef and accomplished culinary instructor. She judged cakes for the Washington State Fair in Puyallup, owned and co-owned several businesses, and most recently was a pastry chef for Chomper Café and Belle’s Brunch House. In 2018, however, Bellefeuille set her sights on something bigger: the Village Bakery. ...continued on page 24

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MARCH 31, 2022 INLANDER 23

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24 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

FOOD | OPENING “IT TAKES A VILLAGE,” CONTINUED... In her business plan, Bellefeuille defines the bakery’s mission as “a resource in the community,” including emphasizing the teaching of front- and back-of-the-house skills, and finding “where each person thrives,” building on their strengths. Bellefeuille also drew on her children’s experiences to inform the model for the Village Bakery. Because both of her now-adult children had disabilities — she uses the term “uniquely abled” — Bellefeuille knew that entering the traditional working world would be challenging for them, but also that help was available. When her son was in high school, he received job skills mentoring through Project Search. The Coeur d’Alene School District internship program was created in collaboration with the Idaho Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and TESH, a private nonprofit supporting childhood development, independent living and employment for people of all ages with disabilities. As good as her son’s program was, says Bellefeuille, businesses willing to work with special needs students were limited. The Village Bakery, she realized, could help interested young adults gain that all-important entry into the food industry. So Bellefeuille began teaching individuals and small groups with unique learning challenges out of her North Idaho home. She discovered she was good at teaching. “I don’t know how it happened that I was given the gift of calmness… being able to teach and not stress out over little things,” she says. Bellefeuille continued planning the Village Bakery with the goal of finding a permanent space. After a few false starts, she lucked out in July 2021 with its Hayden location.

ven before the bakery opened, like a scene from the movie Field of Dreams, people showed up to participate. Donations included a commercial oven, washer and dryer, and labor to install tile and flooring. One local man showed up with bread baking skills, while a woman who played wheelchair basketball with Bellefeuille’s daughter came by to make cookies and then offered to create soups and help run the kitchen. Local chef Patricia Hebert-Jenks donates her time to make quiches ($7.95). Bellefeuille’s vision has always included students, whom she calls bakers-in-training, but also others — the proverbial village — meaning students’ families, plus volunteers, businesses and whoever else is interested in being involved. “We’re all learning together to find out what brings [everyone] the most joy,” Bellefeuille says. The bakery’s menu will continue to evolve according to the interests and abilities of her nearly 40 employees, says Bellefeuille, who doesn’t yet take a paycheck. “We all give and that’s really what Village Bakery is about.” n The Village Bakery • 190 W. Hayden Ave., Hayden • Open Tue-Sat 8 am-4 pm; Sun 10 am-2 pm • thevillagebakerycda.com • 208-446-4860

INCLUSIVITY IN ACTION

The Arc of Spokane is one of more than 600 state-based chapters of the national nonprofit, which “promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and actively supports their full inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetimes.” Matching individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to the right job is one of many services provided by The Arc’s supported employment team. Services include assisting with filling out job applications and the interview process, as well as post-employment coaching to ensure individuals’ continued success. Currently, The Arc of Spokane has 14 clients in the food service industry, including several fast food places, Sodexo and numerous grocery stores. Visit arc-spokane.org for information. — CARRIE SCOZZARO

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ALSO OPENING THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

An ex-con who’s finally getting his life together (Omar Epps) gets pulled back into the seedy world of gang violence and the failing criminal justice system after his brother becomes a suspect in a horrific murder. (SS) Rated R

MORBIUS

Sony’s Marvel universe continues adding to Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery of antiheroes (despite Spidey being nowhere to be found, hiding over in the MCU) with Jared Leto starring in the origin story of the titular scientist-turned-vampire. (SS) Rated PG-13

Director Richard Linklater adds vibrant colors to this childhood tale.

REVIEW

COSMIC NOSTALGIA Richard Linklater lovingly explores childhood memories in Apollo 10 1/2

ichard Linklater is so good at evoking nostalgia in movies like Boyhood and Dazed and Confused that he can make viewers feel a pensive longing for a time and place they never even experienced. He achieves that effect again in Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, which could form the first part of a loose trilogy with Dazed and Confused and Everybody Wants Some!!, charting Linklater’s Texas coming-of-age from his preteen years through college. As in those other two movies, there’s no character in Apollo 10 1/2 named Richard Linklater, but young protagonist Stan (Milo Coy) is clearly a Linklater standin. Per the title, Stan is 10 and a half years old in 1969, when the Apollo 11 astronauts land on the moon. He fancies himself the first American on the moon, though, in fantasy sequences that open the movie and return in its second half. Jack Black voices the adult version of Stan, narrating Apollo 10 1/2 in warm, wistful tones that make it sound a bit like an audiobook version of a long-lost memoir. The visual style adds to that feel, returning to the rotoscope animation that Linklater used on Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, albeit with a more polished CGI sheen. Despite its storybook imagery and family-friendly tone,

26 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

BY JOSH BELL Apollo 10 1/2 isn’t really a kids’ movie, and Black gets far members of Stan’s family, but he conveys plenty in small more lines than Coy as he talks through nearly the entire moments, including a funny scene of Stan’s mom (Lee first half of the movie. After introducing the whimsical Eddy) attempting to discern who is and is not a hippie on idea that Stan has been recruited by NASA to test a lunar the nearby college campus. Linklater fills the movie with landing module that has accidentally been built too small, period pop culture artifacts, to the point where several Apollo 10 1/2 backtracks so that the scenes simply involve Black listing the older Stan can reminisce about life in the names of TV series or movies. But each APOLLO 10 1/2: Houston suburbs in the late 1960s, with one of those references is chosen lovingly, A SPACE AGE CHILDHOOD a winning specificity that makes every with the sense that Linklater places enorRated PG-13 moment feel genuine. mous value on every film, board game and Linklater clearly has fond memories Directed by Richard Linklater breakfast cereal shown on screen. of even the most questionable aspects of Starring Milo Coy, Jack Black, Bill Wise Black’s narration scales back in the Streaming on Netflix starting April 1 growing up during this era, although he movie’s second half, which focuses on doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the Apollo 11 mission itself. Linklater civil unrest, environmental destruction and racial inequalintersperses scenes of Stan’s fantasy space voyage with the ity. Older Stan frames all of these from a kid’s perspective, experience of watching the actual launch and subsequent as events happening on TV in some far-away adult world, landing. He captures the mix of the mundane and the while kids played in front yards, visited amusement parks momentous, as not everyone views this milestone as and practiced duck-and-cover drills without the consea top priority (Stan’s oldest sister calls it “historically quences ever sinking in. boring”). Apollo 10 1/2 is less about the moon landing Stan is the youngest of six kids, and his father (Bill than it is about the experience of being a kid, placing it Wise) works in one of the less glamorous positions at alongside cinematic memory pieces from A Christmas Story NASA, in charge of shipping and receiving. Linklater to Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma. Its plotless meandering is an sketches out fairly minimal character development for the essential element of its charm. n

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Driveway moments are different on Better Things.

Walk-off Winner As FX’s Better Things approaches its end, it’s proving itself one of the best sitcoms in recent memory BY DAN NAILEN

t’s difficult to think of sitcoms coming to an end gracefully, and at the height of their relevance. Dramas? You could certainly argue that shows like Friday Night Lights or Breaking Bad or The Sopranos improved as they went along, and then turned out the lights at the right time. Going out on top creatively (and commercially) can be done. Sitcoms? Not so much. Plenty have been cut short at their most hilarious due to wrongheaded cancellations (R.I.P. Happy Endings), but successful shows that ended of their creators’ own will? Rarely are they going out at their peak (see: Seinfeld, The Simpsons, 30 Rock, Parks & Rec, the list goes on). Better Things, currently in the midst of its final season on FX and streaming on Hulu, bucks that trend big time. And its five-season run marks it as one of the most consistent modern sitcoms in recent memory. Its success is even more impressive given that the whole thing could have fallen apart early on. For the uninitiated, Better Things was cocreated by Pamela Adlon and Louis C.K. and is loosely based on Adlon’s life as an actress and single mom. You might recall C.K. had a sexual harassment scandal five years ago that abruptly changed the trajectory of his professional life (at least briefly), and that scandal hit just two months after Better Things’ second season ran in the fall of 2017, and one month after it had been renewed for a third season. C.K. was heavily involved in the first two seasons to be sure, directing the pilot and writing or co-writing many episodes. But don’t get it twisted — Better Things is Pamela Adlon’s story, both on screen and behind the scenes. Adlon directed every episode of the second

season even before C.K.’s work with the show ended, and she’s directed every episode since, too. She revamped the writers’ room heading into Better Things’ third season, and what was already an incredibly rich mix of comedy and drama drawn from the family dynamics of Adlon’s Sam, her daughters Max (Mikey Madison), Frankie (Hannah Alligood) and Duke (Olivia Edward), and her nextdoor-neighbor mother Phil (Celia Imrie) just got better. You know how watching sitcom kids grow up on screen is typically awkward? On Better Things, we’ve watched Sam’s kids grow from school kids to young adults, wrestling with relationships, pregnancies, crises in self-identity and daddy issues. Watching mother and daughters traverse that growth together makes Better Things feel so much more real than its sitcom peers, even with a Hollywood setting that allows for great cameos and storylines from Sam’s acting career. In just the first four episodes of this final season, the show has tackled the economics of aging, the onset of dementia in a parent, an unwanted pregnancy, and the complicated emotions for both parents and children when a person’s pronouns aren’t set in stone — and it’s done it with plenty of well-earned laughs (and a peek at a pretty good-looking borscht recipe to boot). Consider this column a two-sided plea. To the TV viewers (hey, that’s you!) yet to get on board with Better Things, get with the program before it’s too late! (Granted, thanks to streaming, it’s never really too late). To the TV Powers That Be, this is a plea to give Pamela Adlon a fat sack of cash when Better Things concludes April 25. This is a creative voice we need to hear more from in the future. n

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MARCH 31, 2022 INLANDER 27

LGBTQ+

Trans Music 101 A beginner’s guide to trans musicans to celebrate International Transgender Day of Visibility

illy Tipton was a famous jazz pianist and bandleader from the 1940s all the way to the 1970s. He toured the country relentlessly with various jazz bands, including his own trio. The Billy Tipton Trip released two albums in 1957, Sweet Georgia Brown and Billy Tipton Plays Hi-Fi On Piano. With the modest success of these records, his trio was offered a sweet residency in Reno, Nevada, and an opening slot for Liberace. Preferring to follow his own path, Tipton’s most famous and final residency was a thriceweekly gig at Spokane’s Tin Pan Alley/ Green Monkey. He had put down roots in the Lilac City in 1958. A bit of a ladies man, he’d moved to Spokane with his fourth wife, Maryann. But Billy left Maryann for the fifth Mrs. Tipton, Kathleen Kelly, and the couple adopted three sons… before later returning to Maryann. Billy died in 1989. Only then was it revealed he was transgender. We’ve come a long way to where

BY ALYSON McMANUS being trans is no longer a scandalously shocking reveal. While he might appear to be an outlier, Tipton is just but one of many trans people making music in history. While current pop stars like Sam Smith, Teddy Geiger, Ezra Furman and Kim Petras might make trans music seem like a new development, trans musicians have always been here. While the diversity of trans musicians makes compiling a definitive list of trans artists an impossible task, having a place to start can be a useful tool. In recognition of International Transgender Visibility Day (March 31), here are a few essential trans artists to check out.

WENDY CARLOS

An early pioneer of electronic music, Carlos broke new ground by arranging classical pieces by Bach using Moog synthesizers. Switched on Bach showed how the versatility of synths could bring to any musical style and even open doors to people who didn’t like classical music. This album would ultimately land her gigs scoring iconic films like A Clockwork Orange and

Tron. Carlos even collaborated with “Weird Al” Yankovic, taking on the children’s classical piece “Peter and the Wolf” in the mid-’80s. The three part Brandenberg concerto that closes out Switched On Bach is a good place to start for new listeners.

AGAINST ME!

Excuse me if I get personal on this one. I can still remember where I was when I found out Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace came out as trans. It was on a bus ride home from work late at night and stumbled upon an E! article saying she had just come out. I too had been wrestling with my gender identity and as a longtime fan of the band, I got really emotional that night. Fast forward two years later, I had been transitioning for over a year, and Against Me! released Transgender Dysphoria Blues. I have never felt so seen by an album. Laura’s lyrical output about finally being herself doesn’t hold back when it comes to the all-too-real struggles of the trans experience. Tracks like “True Trans Soul Rebel,” “Paralytic States” and “Black Me Out” highlight the heartbreak, anger and acceptance in breathtaking detail. In retrospect, Against Me!’s back catalog is actually filled with other songs that Laura had written about her gender identity such as “Bamboo Bones,” “The Ocean” and “Pretty Girls (The Mover).” Like many trans folks, she was always telling us her truth, we just needed to listen.

Against Me! leader Laura Jane Grace doesn’t hold back in writing about the trans experience. KATIE HOVLAND PHOTO

28 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

HOME OF THE SPOKANE SYMPHONY

THE FOX THEATER #IMOMSOHARD: THE GETAWAY TOUR

G.L.O.S.S.

Olympia, Wash., has maintained its status as a place of weirdos, hippies and outsiders thanks in some part to Evergreen State College. From the early days of K Records to the rise of riot grrl, the city attained a reputation for finding the pulse of the underground music scene early. Between 2014-2016, Olympia gave us G.L.O.S.S. An all-trans band, G.L.O.S.S can best be described as “what if Minor Threat was all trans people?” They played fast and hard punk, setting the stage for so many trans punk bands that have come since. The group released two EPs and famously broke up instead of “selling out,” maintaining their DIY ethos after gaining national attention. Both of these EPs display raw emotions about the reality of being trans and tracks like “G.L.O.S.S. (We’re From the Future),” “Transgender Day of Revenge” and “We Live” remain relevant to this day.

BONUS TRACK PICKS “I Am Her” by Shea Diamond: On this emotional R&B song, Shea lyrically evokes her own personal experiences and doesn’t sugarcoat what it’s like being a trans woman of color.

“They/Them/Theirs” by Worriers: Off the Laura Jane Grace-produced record Imaginary Life, this punk track wrestles with feelings of being outside the gender binary. It’s worth a listen for the guitar solo alone. “Binary” by The Spook School: The Scottish band’s best song is get-stuck-in-your-head catchy and earns bonus points for using math as a lyrical convention.

SHAMIR

Shamir is a nonbinary singer/songwriter from Las Vegas who’s been fairly prolific over the last few years, including releasing two albums in 2020, Cataclysm and Shamir. Both albums have diverse sounds incorporating genres like punk, electronica, hip-hop and soul. But it’s the raw emotions in the lyrics that draw listeners into his sound. Standout tracks include “Pretty When I’m Sad”, “I Wonder,” “Feminine Guy” and “All The Places Nobody Wants To Be.” His new 2022 album Heterosexuality hits hard with the tracks like “Cisgender” and “Gay Agenda.”

SOPHIE

Mostly known for her production work with pop stars like Madonna, Charlie XCX and Kim Petras, Sophie’s own music exemplified the hyperpop explosion of the last five years before she tragically died in January 2021. Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides really hits every note of the emotional spectrum. Her musical spirit still lives on in standout tracks like “It’s Okay to Cry,” “Not Okay” and “Pretending.” There are so many trans artists nowadays, and it’s heartening to see. Last year alone saw so many great releases from artists like We are the Union, Ryan Cassata, Evan Greer, Fiona Moonchild and Mykki Blanco. Trans people have always been in music, and we’re not going anywhere. n

Sun., April 3, 7pm

Presented by Whitworth University Music Department

UPCOMING SHOWS THE BOBBY LEES, GOTU GOTU, BETTER DAZE Thu, March 31 at 7:30 pm The Big Dipper $8 SHINEDOWN, THE PRETTY RECKLESS, DIAMANTE Fri, April 1 at 7 pm Spokane Arena $30-$277 HOT CLUB OF SPOKANE Sat, April 2 at 7 pm Lucky You Lounge Free MACKLEMORE Sat, April 2 at 7:30 pm Beasley Coliseum $67 CLUTCH, EYEHATEGOD, TIGER CUB Sun, April 3 at 8 pm Knitting Factory $35-$37 GHOST LIGHT Sun, April 3 at 8 pm Lucky You Lounge $15 SANTANA Sun, April 3 at 8 pm Spokane Arena $45-$315 MELISSA ETHERIDGE Wed, April 6 at 7:30 pm Northern Quest Resort & Casino $59-$89 TIM MONTANA Wed, April 6 at 8 pm Knitting Factory $20-$25 LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM Sat, April 9 at 8 pm Bing Crosby Theater $42-$205

MARIA SCHNEIDER WITH THE WITHWORTH JAZZ ENSEMBLE Sat., April 9, 8pm Fox Presents

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE: THE FILM & A CONVERSATION WITH THE STARS! Sat., April 16, 7:30pm

Spokane Symphony Masterworks

1001 NIGHTS

Sat, April 23, 8pm • Sun, April 24, 3pm James Lowe, conductor • Inon Barnatan, piano

MULTICARE HEART STRINGS Fri., April 29, 8pm

KIP MOORE – HOW HIGH TOUR Sat., April 30, 8pm

Spokane Symphony

STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE IN CONCERT Watch film with score performed live. Sat., May 7, 8pm • Sun., May 8, 3pm

Outback Presents

FORTUNE FEIMSTER: HEY Y’ALL Sat., May 14, 7pm

Fox Presents

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE IMPROBABLE ASCENT With Paraclimber Maureen Beck Wed., May 18, 7pm

Spokane Symphony Pops

HAVANA NIGHTS WITH THE MAMBO KINGS & CAMILLE ZAMORA Morihiko Nakahara, conductor Sat., May 21st, 8pm

PLU A SCRE S ENIN OF THE G CLASSIC MOVIE

WITH RSATION A CONVE

DER JON HE ON E L O “NAP NAMITE” DY A M I REZ EFREN RRO” “PED

For complete music listings, visit inlander.com/events

Box Office 624-1200

SpokaneSymphony.org • FoxTheaterSpokane.org Chec k websit e for COVID-19 Safety Prot ocols

MARCH 31, 2022 INLANDER 29

ROBERTO FINIZIO PHOTO

MUSIC INTO THE MYSTIC

OK, I get it, you’ve heard “Smooth” one too many times since the earworm hit helped make Santana 1999 Supernatural album a multiplatinum seller and multi-Grammy winner. Here’s the thing, though: You can drop Carlos Santana’s most successful album from history, and the guy is still a sure-fire Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and one of the greatest guitar players who’s ever hit a concert stage. Go reacquaint yourself with Santana’s breakthrough Woodstock performance from 1969 and marvel at the energy of the young musician (and the fact he says he was on mescaline for the set). That was five decades ago, and Santana’s continued delivering stellar live shows ever since, including at the Spokane Arena just a few years ago. He’s back on his “Blessings and Miracles Tour.” — DAN NAILEN Santana • Sun, April 3 at 8 pm • $45-$99 •Spokane Arena • 720 W. Mallon Ave. • spokanearena.com • 509-279-7000

30 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

VISUAL ARTS FIRST FRIDAY TWOFER

COMEDY MAGIC MEN

First Friday • Fri, April 1 from 5-8 pm • Locations throughout Spokane vary • Details at firstfridayspokane.org

Penn & Teller • Fri, April 1 at 7:30 pm • $69/$79/$99 • Northern Quest Resort & Casino • 100 N. Hayford Rd., Airway Heights • northernquest.com • 509-481-2800

There is an art to tying flies (as in fly-fishing), but this month’s show at Trackside Gallery on Adams pairs fly-fishing specifically with ceramics. Nymph & Terrestrial features two longtime local potters and avid fishermen: Chris Kroupa, who runs Kettle River Pottery Studio out of Curlew, and Dennis Randall Smith, who hails from Medical Lake. The duo will demonstrate fly tying at the gallery on Saturday, April 2, from 10 am-2 pm (free). Next door to Trackside at Kolva-Sullivan Gallery, teenager Anthony Schmidt is having his first gallery show ever, sharing his passion for meticulously styled photos of miniature cars that are so real, they’ll have you wondering how he does it. — CARRIE SCOZZARO

I’m old enough to remember when comedy/magic duo Penn & Teller were an underground phenomenon just bubbling into the mainstream thanks to the success of an Off Broadway hit live show, appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and an almost inexplicable cameo in Run-D.M.C.’s “It’s Tricky” video. It wasn’t until decades later, though, that I got to see them perform in person at Northern Quest Resort & Casino, and I can happily report that the lanky Penn Gillette and his almost-silent partner Teller remain incredibly entertaining. If you’re not into magic, the laughs come steadily enough to make it almost like seeing a comedian (or two), and if you are into magic, no one does it better than these two. — DAN NAILEN

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VOLUNTEER REGISTRATION

SPOKANE WASHINGTON

FESTIVAL FIT TO PRINT

It may seem like the Spokane Print Fest just happened. It did, after being moved (like so much in 2021) from spring to fall due to the pandemic. Now, the fourth-annual, monthlong celebration of all things printed is back for its usual springtime run, with several workshops hosted at Spokane Print & Publishing Center, plus print-related art exhibits and activities around town. In-person workshops ($60 each) include sessions on making linocut stickers, drypoint printing and even printing with Legos! Print-centric gallery shows are up all month at Saranac Art Projects, Terrain’s gallery and the Gonzaga University Urban Art Center downtown, among other venues. Additional activities include live print demos at Spokane Public Library’s the Hive and, of course, lots of print art for sale. — CHEY SCOTT

JUNE, 2022 25-26

NOW OPEN COURT MONITOR & MARSHAL SPONSOR

Spokane Print Festival • April 1-28; times and locations vary • Details at spokaneprintfest.com

MUSIC RETURN OF THE MAC

While Macklemore hasn’t been setting the musical world on fire like he did in 2012 and 2013 with the blockbuster album The Heist and its omnipresent singles “Thrift Shop,” “Can’t Hold Us” and “Same Love,” the public pop-culture discourse around him has tipped a bit too far into the punchline territory. The follow-up album This Unruly Mess I’ve Made didn’t hit, but he recently reconnected with producer Ryan Lewis for a new single, “Next Year,” which is a step in the right direction. While Macklemore may oddly seem more concerned about launching a golf lifestyle brand these days (Bogey Boys), the dude never mails it in live, always putting on hyperkinetic shows. So he shouldn’t disappoint any Cougs when he headlines an arena show for WSU’s Family Weekend. — SETH SOMMERFELD Macklemore • Sat, April 2 at 7:30 pm • $67 • All ages • Beasley Coliseum • 925 NE North Fairway Rd., Pullman • ticketswest.com • 509-335-3626

MARCH 31, 2022 INLANDER 31

DOES?! That’s right! These two dummies! I’d lay down & die before I let any ACTUAL harm come to them.”

CHEERS RE: SPOKANE DRIVERS Cheers to the Jeers “Spokane Drivers” posted last week. I couldn’t have said it better. Spokane has an incredible amount of stupid (and rude) drivers. Your comment about their tiny little middle fingers with the tattoos on them was spot on also. Funny how they put those tiny little things up when they’ve done the wrong thing. I do have one suggestion about where they can put their minuscule middle fingers, perhaps with some hot sauce on it before it’s inserted. Duh! Duh! Duh! Dumb!

I SAW YOU SHINY ...On the ground in the parking lot of that small business...your beautiful bracelet. We found it!...We reported it to the staff. Go in and identify it. We’ll make sure you get it back! We’ll return it there. You were probably loading supplies when the clasp broke. It’s in good hands.

YOU SAW ME MIND YOUR BUSINESS I was on my routine morning walk with my two sweet-butrowdy mutts. As we turned the corner, they saw you standing outside the coffee shop in a bright pink coat. They both got excited and instantly went nuts with the barking/ pulling/tripping me up with their leashes. Not your fault per se, because again: rowdy. One doggo wouldn’t respond to my verbal commands to heel or quiet down, so I gave her a LIGHT smack on the nose with the soft handle of her leash. If I hadn’t, I literally would’ve gotten pulled down b/c they’re surprisingly muscular. But did witnessing my obvious 2v1 struggle deter you? Nope! You waited for us to get closer, then delivered a scolding that rivaled any I got in 12+ years of Catholic school. I’d like to take this opportunity to deliver the biting response I thought of later while picking up poop at the dog park: “Listen Lady, this ain’t the comments section of your Granny’s Only FB Group. You can’t just cuss out random strangers on the street over a nine-second observation! I can’t have children of my own, so these dogs are the closest I’ll ever get. I don’t have health insurance, BUT GUESS WHO

SOUND OFF

CHEERS TO WILL @ SHADLE CHEVRON! I just wanted to give a shout-out to Will at Shadle Chevron! I had a very flat tire, during rush hour, and had to park my car at the gas station. I had nothing on me to pull the tire off and put my spare on. Will let me borrow his socket set, and I was able to change my tire out in no time flat, pun intended :) Will, THANK YOU for being a great part of the Shadle community! We need more people like you! HEADS UP Howday Hairdo Honey! Please return her red cap. White and teal logo. Regional locale. It wasn’t his to leave behind. YOU ARE TROUBLE CODY L. You. Look at you lookin’ at me, seeing me sittin’ there waitin’ for someone like you to stroll in. There you are. Thanks for the help with the phone, good sir. For the drive. For the extended days. You are pretty damn sexy with all your intelligence, street smarts, self-control, great sense of humor ... fully composed ... stuff you do. You need to stop it. Hope you achieved the hairdo you were goin’ for friend. I do believe that it was time well spent, and thank you for letting me Shanghai you for your bday. Thank Lu for letting me ride shotgun. Thank you for intelligent conversation, and thank you for a much-needed distraction. You are TROUBLE. And P.S. we were totally moving. S.M.W. “BEST WEATHERCASTER” VOTERS GOT IT WRONG It is understandable why the beloved Tom Sherry was voted Best TV Weathercaster, but surely Blake Jensen at KHQ would be second. Do any of these

voters know the difference between an in-depth, professional weather presentation and a diluted one given by a pretty faced person who just leans back & points to a weather map? It doesn’t seem like it, so keep “it” going, Blake, for those of us who need to know what to expect when we leave the house.

“

WAKE UP, VOTERS Boot the right wing out of power in Eastern Washington and Idaho. If you are a person of color, female, or believes that gender is more that straight heterosexual, the Republicans want to push you back out of sight. Has anyone heard Cathy McMorris-Rodgers condemn the Jan. 6 rioters, the attacks on LGBTQ persons,

Spokane has an incredible amount of stupid (and rude) drivers.

TO STRONG PEOPLE NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT Today I found out that no matter how you may think you can relate and know what someone else’s past entails, you probably have no idea! Be very aware of what you say because when someone is quiet and you call them weak it can be the farthest statement from the truth. Most of us are fortunate enough not to even be able to fathom some of the horrors that even Stephen King himself couldn’t come up with. For those whose childhoods were that unspeakable, I just want to say “I love you!!! You’re lives matter the most!!!! Thank you for being the bravest, most humbled people on earth. STAY STRONG!” FORGIVENESS ISN’T SO HARD Remind yourself of something you did (or failed to do) that hurt someone deeply, something you still regret. Imagine how nervous and fearful you’d be to reach out to this person and apologize, sincerely. How would you want to be received? Is that how you would respond to someone who had hurt and apologized to you? I’m no theologian, but I doubt hell is overrun with the truly penitent or those who charitably forgive. Be brave: Try to make amends to someone you wronged. A heartfelt apology will almost surely be welcomed. Especially if accompanied by beer, weed, and a large pizza.

JEERS ANYONE HOME? It’s come to my attention that face-to-face customer service is still closed at Avista. One can pay their bill at

1. Visit Inlander.com/isawyou by 3 pm Monday. 2. Pick a category (I Saw You, You Saw Me, Cheers or Jeers). 3. Provide basic info: your name and email (so we know you’re real). 4. To connect via I Saw You, provide a non-identifying email to be included with your submission — like “petals327@yahoo.com,” not “j.smith@comcast.net.”

32 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

a dropoff location at Avista, but are not allowed to talk to anyone at Avista in person. This is because they’ve chosen to “stay safe due to the coronavirus.” What kind of a message does this send to everyone else in Spokane? Every school is open and has been for a long time! Every grocery story never closed! Restaurants opened for traditional

dining a long time ago. But, Avista remains closed. We need more competing energy companies that actually do care about true customer service. HARD TO SEE SPRINGTIME FOR THE POOP! It’s a rough time out there. Just barely coming out of a winter that was particularly hard with COVID so getting out of the house is truly something special — or should be. Living right next to Kendall Yards and the Centennial Trail is GREAT! It’s mostly a walking paradise — other than being mowed down by bicyclists and NOW those one-wheeled MOTORIZED vehicles that, GEE, aren’t they illegal on park walking trails? But on to the story. The walking is wonderful as I have a 1-year-old puppy that needs to be walked every day. Makes the old guy get off his backside! Which is a good thing. The dog community for the most part are friendly, and Snuggie and I are meeting lots of people out walking their dogs too. The city has actually done a good thing or at least the Kendall Yard people by putting many poop bag dispensers and drop spots along the way! GOOD JOB! 99% of the time I have at least one of my own with me for when my dog hears the call of the wild. HOWEVER! There is FAR too much poop along the trails NOT picked up! Some of these piles are significant! As more people are out the number of piles are getting out of hand. There are a lot of people that walk these paths and oftentimes step off them — now to their own peril. I actually have not seen anyone letting their dog do this, or I would say something! This is a health issue. Lots of children walk these trails. You start handing out fines for this, and it ends. Really Spokane? You really don’t care about your city any more than this? Shame on you! Bad Owner!

”

the “stolen” election claims, the banning of books, or the attack on women? She is concerned with just one thing: keeping her job. So she supports the power grab by white, heterosexual men. The insidious takeover of local elections, including election officials, will kill democracy and replace it with what they believe is a God-inspired theocracy. The elections are almost here. Wake up and throw the right wing out of office. PLEASE SLOW DOWN! I’m truly ashamed to see people driving in our lovely town tailgating other vehicles, racing nightly down Argonne and all around bad behavior on our roads. Don’t worry, we will all get to our respective destinations in a timely matter if we all just drive safely, obey traffic laws and respect each other on the road. Let’s keep everyone safe and not drive like our butts are on fire. n

THIS WEEK'S ANSWERS B A H A M A

L O O K U P

T U M B L E

G O L F I N G

G O M A D F O R

I B E L I E V E

S P I E A T E G A M S A R L E T R A S V O C V E I T I G S G A 3 S P Y M O C I L L N U S E D K

S T E P E A S Y A O N C E

A A S R T S E D D R J E C B R O M E D O W Y E S T S C C O M A A R R

L A R D

O B A M A H E A R G A

A B S E N C E S

D I K D I K S

M Y H E R O

T I R A D E

T E M P O S

I M A G E D

NOTE: I Saw You/Cheers & Jeers is for adults 18 or older. The Inlander reserves the right to edit or reject any posting at any time at its sole discretion and assumes no responsibility for the content.

EVENTS | CALENDAR

BENEFIT

SERIOUSLY, HEATH A benefit for the Heath Harmon family featuring various local artists, live music, wine specials and sale items. April 1, 5-8 pm. By donation. Terra Blanca Winery, 926 W. Sprague. terrablanca.com (509-340-9140) FOR I WAS A STRANGER A benefit featuring original monologues and music drawn from scripture. All proceeds benefit the United Methodist Committee on Relief. April 2, 7-8:30 pm. $20-$50. West Central Abbey, 1832 W. Dean Ave. westcentralabbey.org FUND THE FUTURE MILLION CELEBRATION Global Neighborhood Thrift celebrates hitting the $1 million mark in paid wages to refugees. Tickets cover drinks, food, silent auction and access to a new Article and Joybird furniture drop. April 8, 7-9 pm. $10. Global Neighborhood Thrift, 919 E. Trent Ave. gnthrift.com (509-868-0001) RAMEN FEST FOOD FESTIVAL Cozy up with a bowl of traditional Japanese ramen and some butter mochi. All food served to-go only. April 10, 11 am-3 pm. $5-$12. Spokane Buddhist Temple, 927 S. Perry St. SpokaneBuddhistTemple.org

COMEDY

AD IT UP Go behind the scenes at an ad agency and laugh at the executives, creatives, staff and clients as they improvise tag lines and commercials for products based on audience suggestions. Fridays at 7:30 pm through April 29. $8. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave.

bluedoortheatre.com (747-7045) CHAD DANIELS The rural Minnesota native has been touring the country for over 20 years, has made six late-night appearances and was featured on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. April 1-2 at 7:30 and 10:30 pm. $35-$45. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com TIM ALLEN The award-winning film, TV and comedy star performs a night of standup. April 1, 8 pm. $49-$112. First Interstate Center for the Arts, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. firstinterstatecenter.org LIVE COMEDY AT THE BLACK DIAMOND This showcase features two teams of comedians facing off in a comedy competition where anything can happen. April 2, 8-9:30 pm. $12. Black Diamond, 9614 E. Sprague Ave. fb.me/e/1w99PNzlV SAFARI A “Whose Line”-esque, fastpaced short-form improv show. For mature audiences. Saturdays at 7:30 pm. $8. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bluedoortheatre.com #IMOMSOHARD: MOM’S NIGHT OUT ROUND 2 Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley are the comedy duo #IMomSoHard. With a popular series on Facebook, these two best friends – and moms – talk the good, the bad, and the funny about motherhood, friendship and beyond. (Rescheduled from 2020) April 3, 7 & 7:30 pm. $50-$160. Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, 1001 W. Sprague Ave. foxtheaterspokane.org CHARLIE BERENS The journalist and comedian has been featured on Funny or Die and is the creator of the Manitowoc Minute comedy show. April 4, 7:30 pm.

$30-$45. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com GABRIEL IGLESIAS The American standup comedian has produced several TV specials and starred in the films Magic Mike, Space Jam: A New Legacy. April 7, 8 pm. Spokane Arena, 720 W. Mallon Ave. spokanearena.com

COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY FUN DANCE Participate in lines, rounds, polkas, Scillian circles and reels. Dancers of all levels welcome. April 2, 7-9 pm. $5. Western Dance Center, 1901 N. Sullivan Rd. squaredancespokane.org HOLISTIC FESTIVAL An event with more than 50 booths providing organic and natural products. April 2, 10 am-5 pm. $6. CenterPlace Regional Event Center, 2426 N. Discovery Place Dr. (509-468-9001) A LUAU TO DIE FOR: MURDER MYSTERY Crime Scene Entertainment presents another interactive murder mystery experience. April 2, 6:30 pm. $36-$96. Cuppa Columbian Caffe, 3270 W. Prairie Ave. facebook.com/ events/1264903934018768 HANAMATSURI FLOWER FESTIVAL BUDDHIST SERVICE Hanamatsuri Service observes the birth of Buddha. Reverend Katsuya Kusunoki from the Seattle Betsuin gives the Dharma message. April 3, 10:30-11:30 am. Free. Spokane Buddhist Temple, 927 S. Perry St. SpokaneBuddhistTemple.org FLEECE TIE BLANKETS If you’re a teen or tween looking for service hours, stop by the library during this drop-in program to help make fleece tie blankets that

will be donated to organizations who service those in need. You must be a current middle or high school student to participate. Project availability is first come, first served. Tweens and teens. April 7, 1-4 pm. Free. At the North Spokane Library (44 E. Hawthorne Rd.) and Spokane Valley Library (2004 E. Main Ave.) scld.org (893-8350) WORK & PLAY While Spark Central’s staff and volunteers engage kids in games, art and stories, come use computers, print and copy, or grab a book or the newspaper. April 7, 5-7 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. sparkcentral.org/events/work-and-play SPOKANE SPEED & CUSTOM SHOW An indoor car show with vendors and car displays. April 8-10, Fri 12-7 pm, Sat 10 am-8 pm, Sun 10 am-5 pm. $8-$15. Spokane County Fair & Expo Center, 404 N. Havana St. spokanespeedandcustomshow.com FINDING HOPE: SURVIVORS OF SUICIDE LOSS Journey Thru Grief and Hope Haven Counseling teamed up to organize this free community event for survivors of suicide loss. It includes time to connect with other local survivors, lunch and an opportunity to connect with local resources April 9, 11 am-4 pm. Free. Opportunity Presbyterian Church, 202 N. Pines Rd. opportunitypresbyterian.org MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WALK The third annual 5k, hosted by the Latah Alliance on Mental Illness. Virtual option available. April 9, 9:30 am-noon. Free. Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute, 1040 Rodeo Dr. lamiadvocacy. org (208-882-1444)

FILM

DREAMWORKS ANIMATION: THE EXHIBITION From the makers of Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon and Trolls, comes an extraordinary exhibition celebrating over 25 years of DreamWorks Animation. The show includes more than 400 items including rare and never-seen-before concept drawings, original artifacts, interactives, film clips, and more. March 27-Sept. 11; Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm (third Thursdays until 8 pm). $15-$20. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org FAMILY NIGHT: ODD SQUAD MOVIE Spark Central and KSPS host a screening of the “Odd Squad” movie. After, young investigator agents can make their own badges, create math rooms or play Odd Squad games on iPads. March 31, 3-5 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org/events/familynight-odd-squad (509-279-0299) CRIP CAMP: A DISABILITY REVOLUTION This award-winning film follows a small group from their first meeting at a camp for handicapped youth on their journey seeking equality and access for disabled people. Proceeds support Panhandle Special Needs Inc. April 2, 6-10 pm. By donation. Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave. panida.org TOTALLY TUBULAR TUESDAYS The Garland’s cult favorite film series is back every Tuesday evening. See complete schedule and pre-buy tickets online. Tuesdays at 7:10 pm through May 31. $2.50. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.com (509-327-1050)

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I’m a 20-something single woman. I just moved to a new city where I don’t know anybody. I’d like to meet people, but I work from home, and I’m pretty shy. The idea of having to earn people’s acceptance in a new environment (and possibly making a mess of it) leaves me tempted to stay home with Netflix and my cat. —Afraid To be human is to err. And err. And err. Personally, AMY ALKON I have clogged somebody’s toilet, shattered an expensive, um, vase (“Nooo...not Nana’s ashes!”), and knocked a guy’s red wine the length of a white-on-white living room. In my defense, not all at the same party. You can’t really control what happens to you — and if you’re as graceful as I am, you can’t really control what you do. What you can control is how you react: whether you “shy away” from public life or put on a brave face, hoping somebody in your circle gets arrested for bestiality and bumps you from the top of the social newsfeed. Researchers have spent decades squabbling over how shyness should be defined, and they have yet to agree on a definition. However, shyness, to some extent, is a super-light shade of “social anxiety disorder”: a debilitating fear of being “negatively evaluated” by others — deemed disgusting, stupid, ugly, weird, or otherwise rejection-worthy — and then being publicly humiliated and socially deleted. Social anxiety sufferers, desperate to avoid the eyeballs and judgment of others, live shrunken lives. Parties, meetings, and classes are often out of the question, as are situations requiring “public speaking” (like the coffee line, with the ever-looming danger of being asked “You next?”). Though you’re merely shy — meaning you probably just dread and sometimes duck out of parties or talking with strangers — it’s important to reflect on whether your shyness is standing between you and the life you want — or... whether it is (or has been) a good thing. That question — about the possible benefits of shyness — might sound a little nuts (though it’s anything but). Answering it requires exploring shyness from an evolutionary perspective: Why might shyness have evolved — that is, what might’ve been its function in an ancestral environment? Now, maybe you’re grumbling, “Ancestral environment?! Who cares what some hairy humans were doing way back when?” Well, we need to care, because our modern skulls are home to an antique psychological operating system — adapted for the mating and survival problems of our distant human ancestors. In ancestral times, getting booted from your hunter-gatherer band meant going it alone in a horribly harsh environment, millennia before DoorDash — or doors. If you didn’t starve to death, you might become the brunch entree for Mr. and Mrs. Tiger. Deeply unpleasant — and a big dead end for your genes. That’s where our emotions — including feelbad ones like fear and anxiety — come in. Psychiatrist and evolutionary researcher Randy Nesse explains that our emotions are motivational tools, driving us to behave in ways that help us survive and pass on our genes. For example, he observes that “People develop a fear of heights after a fall” — killing the appeal of skydiving, rock climbing, and other sports with a concerning, shall we say, splat rate. Along with our ancestral history, your personal history has shaped your behavior. At some point, it was probably “adaptive” — functional, protective — for you to duck and cover; for example, if, like me, you were a little kid bullied by bigger, older girls. (“Out of sight; out of beatdown.”) But...does it make sense now to keep ducking and covering? It’s unlikely there are giant meangirls (or other childhood “monsters”) lying in wait for you. Plus, your adult “neighborhood” is vastly bigger than your childhood one: filled with new friends to make, should the ones you have give you the shove. Changing a habit is seriously hard — but doable. It takes repeatedly behaving as the person you want to be. Scary — maybe even terrifying — but here’s a tip: You might feel shy, but you don’t have to act shy. As I wrote in “Unf*ckology”: “Your feelings are not the boss of you.” (Just because you have a feeling “doesn’t mean you have to go all ‘Yes, your lordship!’ in response.”) We tend not to unpack our fears — ask ourselves, “Yo, Self? What’s the worst that could happen if I go say hi to Hot Strangerdude?” Unless you can truthfully answer, “I’ll be snatched up and pecked to death by a pterodactyl!” there’s really no good reason not to take the plunge. Nobody’s liked by everybody, but let’s be real: Contrary to your worst fears, other guests at the cocktail party aren’t waiting for you to leave so they can compare notes on how stupid you look trying to eat a mini quiche. n ©2022, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. • Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405 or email AdviceAmy@aol.com (www.advicegoddess.com)

34 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

EVENTS | CALENDAR

FOOD & DRINK

LAMB FEAST Chef Scott Siff has crafted a lamb-centric menu with dishes like lamb tartare, pappardelle and roasted lamb leg. April 3, 5-7 pm. $65. Tavolata, 221 N. Wall St. ethanstowellrestaurants. com (509-606-5600) WEST END BEER FEST Celebrate everything craft beer with five participating breweries: River City, Iron Goat, Golden Handle Project, Whistle Punk and Brick West. Each ticket includes a special event glass and koozie, a program and $3 pours of all beers at each location. April 9 at noon. $20. events.beerfests.com/e/westend-beer-fest/tickets WINE EXTRAVAGANZA Enjoy sips from 20 wineries while strolling through local shops as they become pop-up tasting rooms. April 9, 1-7 pm. $25. Downtown Coeur d’Alene, Sherman Ave. cdadowntown.com

MUSIC

SPOKANE SYMPHONY CHAMBER SOIREE An intimate evening of chamber music. Wine, refreshments, coffee and dessert are included with ticket. March 31 at 7:30 pm. $68. Barrister Winery, 1213 W. Railroad Ave. spokanesymphony.org LEON ATKINSON IN CONCERT An evening of classical guitar by Leon Atkinson, who had his debut at Town Hall New York City in 1974. The following year he played Carnegie Hall. (Rescheduled from Sept. 2021) April 1, 7:30 pm. $25. The Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center, 405 N. William St. thejacklincenter.org (208-457-8950) THE MAGIC FLUTE Composed by Mozart, “The Magic Flute” is a tale of two young lovers whose journey in the world brings them together with help of friends and a magic flute. April 1 and 3 at 7:30 pm. $5-$7. University of Idaho Administration Building, 851 Campus Dr. uidaho.edu/music (208-885-6111) PHIL WICKHAM: HYMN OF HEAVEN TOUR Christian music concert. April 3, 7 pm. $19.95-$75. Real Life Ministries, 1866 N. Cecil Rd., Post Falls. reallifeministries.com (208-777-7325) I, TOO, SING AMERICA: THE FRIENDSHIP & COLLABORATION OF MARGARET BONDS AND LANGSTON HUGHES This lecture-recital by Dr. Mary Trotter traces the story of Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes’ friendship, chronicled in the hundreds of letters the two exchanged over three decades. April 4, 7-8:30 pm. Free. Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, 211 E. Desmet Ave. gonzaga. edu/music (509-313-6733) PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE CONCERT WITH ROSIE CERQUONE The WSU Percussion Ensemble presents an eclectic mix of music for drums, mallets and more. The first half features Dr. Ruth Boden, cello, as soloist. The second half feature guest artist, singer/ vibraphonist Rosie Cerquone. April 5, 7:30-9 pm. Free. Kimbrough Music Building (WSU), WSU Pullman. events. wsu.edu/event/percussion-ensembleconcert/ (509-332-9600) AN EVENING WITH LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM Lindsey Buckingham, is perhaps best known for playing lead guitar and singing lead male vocals

in Fleetwood Mac. April 9, 7 & 8 pm. $45-$215. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. bingcrosbytheater.com

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

KING OF THE CAGE Regional fighters compete including Tylor SiJohn, Josh Richman, Cameron Robinett, Travis Wasileski and Brandon Rivera. March 31, 7-9 pm. $50. Coeur d’Alene Casino, 37914 S. Nukwalqw. cdacasino.com FLY TYING DEMONSTRATION BY CHRIS KROUPA & DENNIS RANDALL SMITH In conjunction with the artist’s ceramic exhibition at Trackside Studio, Chris Kroupa and Dennis Randall Smith are demonstrating fly tying. Bring your own camp stool. April 2, 10 am-2 pm. Free. Trackside Studio, 115 S. Adams St. Tracksidestudio.net (509-863-9904) SCHPRING FINALE Celebrate at Schweitzer to wrap up the season. The Ponderay Rotary is on site with their duck derby, plus there’s more fun for all ages. April 2-3. Schweitzer, 10,000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd. schweitzer. com (208-263-9555) SUPPORT ALL PRO WRESTLING: MADE IN SPOKANE Join the stars of Support All Pro Wrestling as they take over the historic Riverside Place for the first wrestling event in the former Masonic temple in six years. April 9, 7 pm. $16.74-$63.99. Riverside Place, 1108 W. Riverside Ave. recspokane.com

THEATER

NEIL SIMON’S PLAZA SUITE Hilarity abounds in this portrait of three couples successively occupying a suite at the Plaza. In the Studio Theatre. Thu-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm through April 3. $10-$20. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St. spokanecivictheatre.com SPACE MAN & BROADWAY Two new one-act plays by Molly Allen. Thu-Sat at 7 pm, Sun at 2 pm through April 10. $20-$25. Stage Left Theater, 108 W. Third Ave. stagelefttheater.org FUNNY GIRL Fanny Brice was one of the most celebrated entertainers of her time. With unique humor, talent and chutzpah, young Fanny, who “isn’t pretty,” defies the odds and becomes one of the greatest stars of her generation. April 1-24, Thu-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm. (April 17 Easter show at 7:30 pm.) $10-$35. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St. spokanecivictheatre.com PENN & TELLER With decades of partnership and a record-breaking Las Vegas show under their belts, the duo continues to amaze and entertain with their own brand of magic and comedy. April 1, 7:30 pm. $69-$99. Northern Quest Resort & Casino, 100 N. Hayford Rd. northernquest.com SALLY COTTER & THE CENSORED STONE When Sally falls asleep while reading books about a certain juvenile wizard, she dreams she’s a student at Frogbull Academy of Sorcery. There, she must defeat the evil Lord Murderdeath. April 1-10, Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm; Sun at 2 pm. $10-$15. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. moscowcommunitytheatre.org MET LIVE IN HD: DON CARLOS The Kenworthy’s annual series of MET Live in HD operas. Don Carlos features tenor Matthew Polenzani in the title role,

soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Élisabeth de Valois and mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča as Eboli. April 4, 6 pm. $15$20. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127) SPOKANE READER’S THEATER An opportunity for local actors, directors, and playwrights of all levels to practice their craft, build skills and explore the possibilities of their talents through classic, book-read performances. April 7, 7:30 pm. $10. Magic Lantern Theatre, 25 W. Main. magiclanternonmain.com

VISUAL ARTS

LITTLE SPOKANE RIVER ARTIST STUDIO TOUR PREVIEW Sneak a preview of art from artists participating in the 2022 artist studio tour. April 1-29, open daily at 5 pm. Free. Dry Fly Distilling, 1021 W. Riverside Ave. littlespokanestudios.com CHARLES & BOB Charles Tuggle and Robert Lloyd are cousins and descendants of Virginian slaves. One explores the past before slavery in the Americas. The other explores world frontiers after slavery. April 1-30, Fri from 5-8 pm, Sat from 12-4 pm. Free. Shotgun Studios, 1625 W. Water Ave. shotgunstudiosspokane.com CONCEPTS FROM NATURE: LAURA NOVAK Laura Novak specializes in multiple media including ceramics, drawing, printmaking, charcoal, sculpture and painting. Open MonFri from 10 am-5 pm through April 29. Free. Spokane Art School, 811 W. Garland Ave. spokaneartschool.net NAN DRYE: SMALL STORIES Artist Nan Drye works with plants and plant dyes on natural fibers. April 1-30, daily from 11 am-7 pm. Free. Pottery Place Plus, 203 N. Washington. potteryplaceplus. com (509-327-6920) FIRST FRIDAY Art galleries and businesses across downtown Spokane and beyond host monthly receptions to showcase new art. April 1 from 5-8 pm. Details at firstfridayspokane.org. FIRST FRIDAYS WITH POAC A Sandpoint art event, organized by the Pend Oreille Arts Council. April 1 from 5:30-7:30 pm. artinsandpoint.org METAL & PAPER Featuring long-time artists and friends Gay Waldman and Karlene Schoedel in this collaborative show of reclaimed metals, mixed media and photo collage. April 1-30, WedSat from 11 am-5 pm. Free. New Moon Art Gallery, 1326 E. Sprague, Suite B. newmoonartgallery.com NYMPHS & TERRESTRIALS An exhibit of ceramic works by regional artists Chris Kroupa and Dennis Randall Smith. April 1-30, Wed-Thu from 11 am-5 pm, Sat from 12-4 pm. Call to confirm visit. Free. Trackside Studio, 115 S. Adams St. tracksidestudio.net (509-863-9904) MFA THESIS EXHIBITION RECEPTION This annual showcase is the culmination of two or more years work by WSU’s Master of Fine Arts graduate candidates. April 1, 4-6 pm. Free. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, 1535 NE Wilson Rd. museum.wsu.edu MARY FARRELL & THE SIETE PRINTERS Collections of prints by Mary Farrell explore moments of passage; the Siete Printers present a sampling of work from various printmakers. April 1-30, Fri-Sat 12-8 pm. Free. Saranac Art

Projects, 25 W. Main. facebook.com/ events/983423152317986/ SMALL CARS, BIG INSPIRATION Photographs by Anthony Schmidt. April is Autism Awareness Month; proceeds from sales go directly to Anthony and an organization that supports the cause. April 1, 5-8 pm and April 2, 12-6 pm. By donation. Kolva-Sullivan Gallery, 115 S. Adams St. kolva-sullivangallery.com WATERCOLOR ARTIST LESLIE LAMBERT A showcase of Lambert’s watercolor paintings. April 1-May 28, daily 11 am-7 pm. Free. Liberty Building, 402 N. Washington. spokanelibertybuilding.com SPOKANE PRINT FEST Printmaking classes, demonstrations, exhibits and more, hosted by Spokane Print & Publishing Center. See website for full schedule; some events also take place at galleries and Spokane Public Library’s the Hive. April 1-28. $60. spokaneprintfest.com

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WORDS

3 MINUTE MIC’S 9TH ANNIVERSARY Readers may share up to 3 minutes’ worth of poetry. April 1, 7-8 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com (509-838-0206) THE ALTARPIECE OF GHENT: MEANING MAKING OVER TIME Dr. Shimizu is a world expert on the Altarpiece of Ghent. In this talk she discusses its meaning, with an emphasis on how that meaning changed over time. April 1, 4:30 pm. Free. Jundt Art Museum, 200 E. Desmet Ave. gonzagagradphil.com EASTERN WASH.GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY SEMINAR Richard Sola lectures about the creation of the Inland Empire and the people who populate it. Susan Dechant teaches about Grand Coulee Dam and the impact it’s had on the region. April 2, 9 am-2:30 pm. $25-$35. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. ewgsi. org/index.php (509-444-5390) FĀVS COFFEE TALK: STANDING FOR DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE AND AT HOME SpokaneFāVS resumes in-person Coffee Talks with a timely discussion about democracy in the U.S. and in Ukraine. April 2, 1011:30 am. Free. FāVS Center, 5115 S. Freya St. spokanefavs.com POETRY & CIVIC LIFE Join prominent poets from across Washington state for a free public event in celebration of National Poetry Month. April 2, 12:30-2 pm. Online: hugohouse.org MURROW SYMPOSIUM Washington State University’s Murrow Symposium is a series of events designed for high-level discussion, leading innovation and strategy development for thought leaders who are passionate and influential in the world of communication. Many panels and events happen on the Pullman campus, but registrants are also encourage to participate virtually. See site for details. April 5-6. Free. murrow.wsu.edu/symposium PEARLS OF WISDOM Join Auntie’s and writer/YouTuber Georgette Spelvin to celebrate her new book. Enter the mystical and magical world of internet sensation ME Pearl, the psychic squirrel deity who created the universe and longs to open it up for you. April 6, 5 pm. Free. Online: auntiesbooks.com n

MARCH 31, 2022 INLANDER 35

NEWS

Legal Moves A Washington craft soda embraces cannabis, and more stories from the world of weed BY WILL MAUPIN

annabis news is coming fast and furious these days, with developments in research, regulation and the product marketplace. Get caught up on all the news from Washington, D.C., and about a Washington state company making headlines in California.

CBD BILL PASSES SENATE

Last week, the U.S. Senate approved the Cannabidiol and Marihuana Research Expansion Act, which aims to decrease the amount of red tape surrounding research into cannabis and CBD. Sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, both Democrats, and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a Republican, the bipartisan bill was passed by unanimous consent. “Current rules and regulations make it hard for researchers to study how marijuana and marijuana-derived medications can best be used to treat various conditions. This important legislation will cut the red tape around the research process, helping get FDAapproved, marijuana-derived medications safely to patients,” Feinsten said in a statement. The bill also pushes the Food and Drug Administration to expand into cannabis and asks the Department of Health and Human Services to report on the health benefits, rather than just the negatives, of cannabis.

Jones Soda’s new moves.

36 INLANDER MARCH 31, 2022

HOUSE SCHEDULES BIG VOTE The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act is scheduled for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives this week. The official bill summary provided by Congress explains the MORE Act quite succinctly. “This bill decriminalizes marijuana. Specifically, it removes marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act and eliminates criminal penalties for an individual who manufactures, distributes, or possesses marijuana,” the summary states. The MORE Act was passed by the House in December 2020 but stalled in the then-Republican-controlled Senate. Both the 2020 and 2022 versions were introduced by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

JONES SODA GOES GREEN

The iconic craft-soda brand, known for the consumersubmitted photographs featured on its bottle labels, is moving into the world of infused beverages. Unfortunately, the Seattle-based company isn’t debuting its newest product in the Evergreen State just yet. California will be the test market for the new Mary Jones line of products, where they will be available starting April 1. Unlike most infused beverages on the market, which contain multiple servings per bottle, Jones will offer single-serving dosage products with 10 milligrams of THC in a 12-ounce bottle. The company says that if the run is successful in the Golden State, they’ll expand into other markets where cannabis has been legalized. Perhaps their home state? n

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GREEN ZONE

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.

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