Crystal Paul

Dec 6, 2024 | thetrace.org | Crystal Paul |Chip Brownlee |Jessica Brown |Juan Felipe Rendon |Juan F. Rendón

The Trace On an unseasonably warm night this past September, the room was quiet. The only thing the seven people sitting around the table knew about each other was that their lives had been marked by gun violence. That’s how it all started — seven survivors, gathering in Bronzeville every month to tell their stories as the streetlights glowed to life, casting yellow halos through the large conference room windows.

Jul 12, 2024 | blockclubchicago.org | Crystal Paul

Sanders BBQ Supply fuses regional barbecue styles, earning it a following on the Far Southwest Side.

May 8, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Crystal Paul

There is no version of Idris Goodwin that is not telling a story. He radiates stories even in a casual conversation. In his work, he tells stories as a playwright; as a breakbeat poet, riffing off of the sampled drum breaks that mark the rhythms of hip-hop; as the artistic director at Seattle Children’s Theatre (since 2022) — and this month, as his first children’s book, “Your House Is Not Just a House,” is published, as a children’s book author.

Apr 15, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Crystal Paul

When opera singer Kenneth Kellogg speaks, you listen. You can’t help it. It’s startlingly similar to what happens when he stands on opera stages — all 6 feet, 5 inches of him — and bellows in his sonorous bass-baritone; you are irrevocably drawn in. This quality is part of what landed him the role as Seattle Opera’s first-ever artistic ambassador.

Feb 22, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Crystal Paul

Bass baritone Kenneth Kellogg never got the idea that opera and classical music wasn’t a welcoming space for Black people. Growing up in Washington, D.C., and attending a performing arts high school, it was Black teachers who introduced Kellogg to classical music and opera. It wasn’t until he went to college elsewhere that he found he was sometimes the only Black person in the music room.