Mark Van Streefkerk

4 weeks ago | southseattleemerald.org | Mark Van Streefkerk

On a drizzly Sunday afternoon in February, the meeting room at the Columbia City library branch was bustling with chatter and activity as volunteers with backgrounds as lawyers, paralegals, notaries, case workers and social workers helped around 100 people who sought guidance about changing their name or gender marker on legal documents. Hosted by the Gender Justice League (GJL), the Feb.

2 months ago | southseattleemerald.org | Mark Van Streefkerk

Around the dinner table at "Covenant." From left to right: Violet (Deja Culver), Ruthie (Kaila Towers), Avery (Simone Alene), and Mama (Felicia Loud). In York Walker's Covenant, hell is real. So is the devil. Making its Seattle debut at ArtsWest from Feb. 6 to March 2, this southern gothic thriller transports us to a small town in Georgia in the 1930s, where five characters come to grips with the price of their secrets and shame, with some delightfully unholy turns.

Dec 23, 2024 | southseattleemerald.org | Mark Van Streefkerk

Arts, Culture, & Community editor Mark Van Streefkerk interviews reporter Sarah Goh at the Emerald's Ninth Birthday Party on Aug. 12, 2023. The Emerald will be observing a team-wide wellness pause from Dec. 20 to Jan. 6, and most publishing will be on hiatus, with the exceptions of four pieces, of which this is one, wherein editors look back at 2024 and some of the work that made the Emerald shine. 2024 gave us another year of incredible arts and community events in the South End.

Nov 20, 2024 | southseattleemerald.org | Mark Van Streefkerk

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), a day that honors the lives of trans people killed due to transphobic violence. In 2024, 350 trans people were killed worldwide, the majority being Black and Brown people, and 15 of them were people under the age of 18. The numbers have steadily gone up since TDOR's inception in 1999, and since trans murders often go underreported, the data we have is likely nowhere near the actual number.

Oct 14, 2024 | southseattleemerald.org | Mark Van Streefkerk

Calling all ghoulies, witches, warlocks, superheroes, wonder women, aliens, and monsters of all shapes and sizes — T’Challaween is almost here!Save the date: Saturday, Oct. 26, from 1 to 4 p.m., starting at 18th Avenue and South College Street to Jefferson Park. The Emerald’s own trick-or-treating event is now in its fifth year, bringing together our communities for a mile-long walk through Beacon Hill, with plenty of candy-tossing stations along the way.