We’ve been meeting as a Board and we’re excited to begin planning for the 2016 International Music and Arts Festival.  We recently sat down with our trusted graphic designer at Penniless Projects.  This year we’re working more closely with the Rainier Valley Chamber of Commerce to promote the Rainier Valley Culturefest Weekend with even more gusto in 2016.

Also in the works are a few new projects we’ll be providing updates on in the coming weeks.  If you would like to get involved, join us at our next board meeting!  We will meet next on Monday, January 11, 2016.  Email us to find out how to join by visiting our contact page!  If you cannot make the meeting, but have some ideas for the festival, stop by our Festival Idea page and make your voice heard.

Seattle Parks and Recreation invites families, neighbors and friends of Othello Park to participate in workshops for the Othello Park play area renovation on Wednesday, July 29, 2015 from 10 a.m. to noon and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Both input workshops sessions will take place at Othello Park located at 4351 S. Othello St.
The neighborhood is encouraged to attend and provide input on which play equipment and design features work best at Othello Park. At the workshops, Seattle Parks and Recreation staff and Maggie Johnson from Johnson and Southerland will gather input about the play area and community preferences for youth play equipment. This input will inform the final design.
The project is a community-initiated project funded by the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund. For more information please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/projects/othello/ or contact Kelly Goold, Project Manager, at Kelly.goold@seattle.gov or 206-684-0586.

via South Seattle Emerald

by Virginia H. Wright, Director of the Rainier Valley Historical Society

Purchased and constructed in 1977 by the Seattle Parks Department, Othello Park has not been around nearly as long as some of the other parks in Rainier Valley. But in one of our oral histories, we recorded a reminiscence from Karleen Pederson-Wolfe, from her ’50s childhood living next to the area that later became the park. The following was excerpted from an interview conducted on November 14, 2001.

“We had a nice little stream that came through. Across the street was a pond where I used to collect polliwogs and just wade in the water with boots on. I couldn’t wait for the winter when it was ice and I could go play on the ice. Othello Park was right here across the street and everyday my dad would take the cows out here and he’d stake them. He had a big iron stake. He’d put it out and they’d graze in Othello Park during the day.”

These days Othello Park doesn’t have any neighbors sending their cows over to graze, but last Sunday, August 17th, 2014, at the Othello Park International Music & Arts Festival, there was a camel, a pair of baby goats, and a few other animals on hand to encourage kids to come out for the event. A varied array of people from the surrounding areas flooded the park, where they were able to visit the booths selling merchandise and presenting information from local organizations, including Rainier Valley Historical Society. At our booth, we had a display of ’70s photographs by local photo-journalist Denis Law, which included photos from Jimi Hendrix’ funeral procession. Visitors to our booth were very interested in seeing the photos, and reading the corresponding articles on our display board which were reproduced from our archives of issues of the Beacon Hill News and South District Journal. The event provided us with an opportunity to talk to people about their experiences living in Rainier Valley and their memories of the park itself. People talked about how much it been improved over the past few years, with the overgrown hills of blackberries being replaced by comfortable grassy hillsides.

We also had the good fortune to be able to see demonstrations of local heritage and culture, from the lion dance put on by Vietnamese group Au-Lac Vovinam Lion Dancers, to a group of Oaxacan dancers in white dresses balancing candles on their heads, a demonstration of South Indian Bhangra, to a group of Somali dancers, and even a group of very talented young tap dancers.

The Othello Park Alliance puts on the festival, as part of the annual Rainier Valley Culture Fest weekend, which also includes the Heritage Parade down Rainier Avenue, which we participated in the previous day.

Rainier Valley Historical Society is dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of our area, and we are also tasked with recording the activities and displays of culture in our current communities, as a way to show future generations what the Valley was like before their own time.

Othello Park is proud to be part of the Pianos in the Parks program!
Come down and check out our new piano, and play to your hearts content.

Piano Man
Artist: Gary Faigin

Gary Faigin is the artistic director and co-founder of Gage Academy of Art. Faigin received his art training under Robert Beverly Hale at the Art Students League and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He taught in New York at the Art Students League, the School of the National Academy of Design, the New York Academy of Art and Parsons School of Design. Faigin’s paintings have been featured in American Artist magazine and Southwest Art, and are displayed in corporate and museum collections across the United States.