Judkins Park is one of four parks in the city that will host a summer Art in the Park educational arts program. The Parks Department is currently accepting applications for programs that could receive as much as $8,400 if they are chosen.

Applicants must be “professional artists,” and the projects should support youth education goals.

From the program request for proposal:

The program should be designed to have elements of academic alignment to help reduce summer learning loss; build self esteem and self efficacy; promote cross-cultural experiences; build on- going participation; welcome drop ins and support the Mayor’s Youth and Family Initiative.

For more info on requirements and how to apply, the full program guidelines are posted below. You can find the full RFP on the Parks Department website:

Summer Art in the Parks Guidelines

A five course meal integrated with performances and art, Café Nordo’s Cabinet of Curiosities opens Friday at Washington Hall. As The SunBreak explains, Café Nordo combines theater and food, but it’s not like the dinner theater you’re used to. The food is as much a part of the evening as the art and performances.

But before you start digging through the couch looking for change to buy a ticket, you should know that tickets run $70 on Thursdays and Sundays and $80 Friday and Saturday. But you are getting a unique five-course meal (camembert and morel tort, rabbit confit hidden in shaved fennel, and more) as well as art and a performance. That sounds way more fun than a tank of gas.

From Café Nordo:

Café Nordo and The World’s Most Elusive Culinary Museum® dish up a selection of wonders in a progressive dinner at Seattle’s historic Washington Hall.

Beginning May 4, the doors of Washington Hall, Seattle’s most pedigreed underground arts space, swing open to reveal Café Nordo’s Cabinet of Curiosities a multi-room private collection of culinary exhibits, some not seen by the public since the early twentieth century. A dish exquisitely crafted by award winning Chef Nordo Lefesczki accompanies each room, enticing adventurers to use all five senses to experience the wonder of food. Flights of wine and originally composed music lace the delirious adventure. Guided by Seattle’s most talented performers, the brave and hungry wend their way through the past and future of Carnal Food®. Only the most seasonal and local interpretations of culinary lore find their way to the plate. Politics aside, Chef Nordo is committed to deliciousness.

Since its first five course foray into food theatre in 2009, Café Nordo has served up two five- course dinner shows, (The Modern American Chicken, and Bounty! An Epic Adventure in Seafood) two cocktail shows, (Sauced, and To Savor Tomorrow,) served a five-course meal in a 30 ft tree house, won critical acclaim (including three Seattle Times Footlight Awards), and established a cult following in Seattle. The dining experience is both theatrical and intimate, only 60 seats available per night with a limited six week engagement.

Café Nordo’s Cabinet of Curiosities is Chef Nordo Lefesczki’s most ambitious five-course meal to date as his production team collaborates with local visual artists to transform Washington Hall. This building, located in the Central District, is a jewel of Seattle’s cultural history, having hosted Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Spalding Grey, and Mark Morris. After falling into disrepair, Washington Hall was purchased by Historic Seattle in 2009. The gradual renovations take a pause as Café Nordo utilizes every secret staircase and backroom to exhibit the history of food. With rooms dedicated to Edible Invasive Species, (designed in conjunction with artist Anne Blackburn,) French Culinary History, (designed in conjunction with artist Mark Siano,) Herbal and Medicinal Uses for Food, (designed in conjunction with Seattle Magazine Spotlight Award winner Mandy Greer,) among others, Café Nordo will create the most intimate and expansive use of Washington Hall to date.

Featuring music composition by Annastasia Workman, a script by Terry Podgorski, direction by Erin Brindley, and performances by Aimée Bruneau, Mark Siano, Maximillian Davis, Carter Rodriquez, Opal Peachey, Evan Mosher, and Sachie Mikawa, Café Nordo’s Cabinet of Curiosities will provide a truly transporting five-course dining experience.

The annual May Day March for Immigrants and Workers gathered outside St. Mary’s Church near Judkins Park Tuesday afternoon for a 5 p.m. march to the Federal Building downtown. Thousands took to the streets to demand justice for all workers.

Despite some widely-reported instances of vandalism earlier in the day, the march — organized by El Comite Pro-Reforma Migratoria y Justicia Social — did not have any property destruction or violence, as some feared.

Below are some photos of the march. Did you take any? Leave them in the comments.

I hope everyone knows this is Give Big day.  Until midnight tonight, (Tuesday May 2) contributions to most local charities are amplified by the big donors at Seattle Foundation.  Including Northwest Harvest and the Rainier Food Bank.  Go to seattlefoundation.org.

The Neighbor Lady is now open for business, joining Med Mix in breathing new activity in the troubled corner at 23rd and Union.

Owners Stephan Mollmann and Shira Bray — both from Cherry Street’s Twilight Exit, a CDNews advertiser — have been hard at work rehabbing the space that housed Thompson’s Point of View for decades. Thompson’s had a couple difficult years and eventually closed in September due to back taxes.

The Neighbor Lady opened its doors for the first time Sunday evening for a “soft opening.” Now, it is up and running at normal hours (4 p.m. until bar close every day), though it’s possible they will have some late openings for the first week or so.

The bar is themed after several European bars Mollmann visited years ago, and the name comes from a brothel-themed neighborhood bar in Amsterdam. The menu has sultry language (appetizers are labeled “foreplay”), and Mollmann says the joint is still working out its identity.

While the menu is not exclusively vegetarian, it is definitely vegetarian-friendly. The bar also features a games room with pinball machines and video games as well as a pool table.

You can follow The Neighbor Lady on Facebook to stay updated on daily specials.

The annual May Day March for Immigrant and Workers Rights starts at St Mary’s near Judkins Park Tuesday. After a rally that starts at 3:30, the march will head downtown at 5.

Once downtown, the march will meet up with people gathered at Westlake Park for a day of hip-hop and political action. Organizers are calling the day a General Strike and urging people not to go to school or work.

Details of the march from El Comite Pro-Reforma Migratoria y Justicia Social:

Annual March and Rally May 1st 2012

Why do we march?

We demand an immediate end to the “secure communities” program, the most recent addition to a policy which has caused the deportation of more than a million immigrants and left more than 10 thousand dead at our borders

Immigration Reform Now!

We Demand Human Rights, Labor Rights, and Access to Education for Everyone!

Tuesday May 1st
Rally at 3:30 pm
March begins at 5:00
611 20th Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98144
(St. Mary’s church)

The Seattle Mayor’s office Friday issued a statement warning about possible violence and property damage around Tuesday’s planned May Day marches and protests. “We also have evidence that other people may be coming to Seattle on Tuesday with the intention of using the public demonstrations as an opportunity to commit violence, damage property and disrupt peaceful free speech activity,” it reads. The full statement is below. 2011’s Seattle May Day rallies were peaceful — and well attended.

A Seattle Central student walkout is one of several actions planned for the day. May1stSeattle.org features a schedule of the planned rallies and events.

Statement on May 1 Demonstrations

SEATTLE –On Tuesday, May 1, several organizations will be holding public demonstrations in Seattle. This will include an annual May Day March for Immigrant and Workers Rights from Judkins Park to downtown Seattle, an Occupy Seattle-sponsored General Strike, and rallies scheduled throughout the day at Westlake Park. The Seattle Department of Transportation advises that delays should be expected downtown during the Tuesday afternoon commute.

We also have evidence that other people may be coming to Seattle on Tuesday with the intention of using the public demonstrations as an opportunity to commit violence, damage property and disrupt peaceful free speech activity. There has been a significant increase in graffiti and posters alluding to violence around the May 1 events. Websites have described trainings in how to conceal weapons beneath signs and banners, and how to target police officers on horses. At a protest at the Port of Seattle in December 2011, several people used peaceful demonstrators as a shield to throw projectiles and incendiary devices at police officers.

Early Thursday morning an incendiary device was thrown at a bank in Columbia City. This was similar to an attack on a bank that took place in Portland late Wednesday night.

Seattle Police command staff and Mayor’s Office staff have been working with protest organizers, property owners, and other stakeholders to facilitate peaceful, constitutional demonstrations. Officers will respond appropriately to criminal acts and threats or harm directed against participants, non-participants, and property.

While much of the day is expected to be peaceful, CHS is told that posts on sites like pugetsoundanarchists.org have concerned authorities and prompted the warnings. This post on the site says Seattle Police referenced an “intelligence report” in a meeting with May 1st organizers. “During the meeting, the SPD revealed that they are very worried that people will attempt to de-arrest each other if the police attack them,” the post states.

Graffiti and postering related to the May 1st actions has been prevalent throughout the Hill and the Central District for weeks including several posters including messages about the 1999 WTO riots.

The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center has been hosting events for weeks now (including a free Seattle Symphony concert April 27), but the recently-rehabbed center will celebrate its official reopening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony May 1.

Details from Seattle Parks:

Seattle Parks and Recreation invites the community to the ribbon cutting ceremony for Langston Hughes Performing Art Center at 10 – 11 a.m. on Tuesday, May 1, 2012. Langston Hughes Performing Art Center (LHPAC) is located at 104 17th Ave S, Seattle WA 98144.

The ribbon cutting event will feature opera, jazz, a youth string ensemble, spoken word and in the Grand Rehearsal Hall, LHPAC’s dance partners rehearsing on the new sprung floor. 

Since its spring 2010 closure, the historic building has received substantial structural upgrades and interior improvements. The Parks and Green Spaces Levy contributed $2.5 million to the restoration with an additional $449,000 came from  the State of Washington Department of Commerce Building for the Arts Grant.

The renovated entrance lobby got new floors and brighter paint.  There are now wheelchair accessible restrooms on the main floor and restroom upgrades throughout the facility. The LHPAC theater and theater lobby feature illuminated historical plaster work. Technical upgrades in the theater infrastructure allow for state-of-the-art productions, and the newly upholstered seats provide patron comfort.

The building also received seismic upgrades, electrical system improvements, fire safety upgrades, and accessibility improvements for people with disabilities. Ron Wright and Associates/Architects acted as consultant on the project and Seattle Parks and Recreation awarded the construction contract to Andersen Construction Company.

LHPAC celebrates, nurtures, presents, and preserves African American and African Diaspora performing arts, cultural wealth and iconic legacies. It is a place where community is created; powerful and authentic connections are developed; and dynamic, local, national, and global art is presented by artists for present and future generations. Established in 1969, LHPAC’s facility was acquired under the Model Cities Urban Renewal Program and in 1973 it became a facility and program within Seattle Parks and Recreation. LHPAC is an essential gathering place for the wealth of African American performing arts in a neighborhood that has seen many demographic changes over the past three decades.

During the renovation closure, LHPAC staff worked from other temporary locations to provide programs and performances across the city. Royal Alley-Barnes is the Executive Director and Jacqueline Moscou is the Artistic Director.  A major gala is planned for Saturday, June 30, 2012.  The theme for the 40th year celebration is “Seattle Harlem Renaissance.”

For more information please visit http://seattle.gov/parks/centers/langston.htm or contact Karen O’Connor, Seattle Parks and Recreation, Public Information Specialist at karen.o’[email protected] or 206-684-8020.  For project information please contact Gary Gibbons at 206-386-1511 or [email protected]. 

As the days get longer and sleeves get shorter, weekend life in the CD is ramping up. Here’s a look at some events around the neighborhood. Did I miss anything? Add it in the comments. And remember, you can post information about your event to the CDNews events calendar. Just create an account and click “Post an Event.”

Free Seattle Symphony concert at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center

Details, from the Seattle Symphony:

WHEN: Friday, April 27, 2012, at 7 p.m.

WHERE: Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, 104 17th Avenue South

WHO:Eric Garcia, conductor

Sophie Lee, violin

Seattle Symphony

---

WHY: As part of the Seattle Symphony’s ongoing commitment to make classical music accessible to the Puget Sound region, the Orchestra will perform a FREE community concert at Seattle’s newly-renovated Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center on Friday, April 27 at 7 p.m. The concert is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

The night’s featured soloist is talented 8-year-old violinist Sophie Lee, a Mill Creek resident and student at the Coleman Violin Studio. Lee will perform Fritz Kreisler’s showpiece Praeludium and Allegro with the Seattle Symphony. The Orchestra will also perform Mozart’s lighthearted Divertimento, K. 136, Holst’s jaunty St. Paul’s Suite, and Mendelssohn’s Sinfonia No. 1, led by Assistant Conductor Eric Garcia.

A multimedia exhibit by Rosaleen Rhee, a Masters candidate in Museology at the University of Washington, will be on display at the concert. The traveling exhibit, Treemonisha: Celebrating African Americans in Classical Music, explores the living legacy and ongoing culture of African American musicians living in and around Seattle.

CONCERT & PROGRAM DETAILS:

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART – Divertimento in F major, K. 136 [125a]

FRITZ KREISLER / arr. Bingiee Shiu – Praeludium and Allegro. Sophie Lee, violin

FELIX MENDELSSOHN – Sinfonia No. 1 in C major

GUSTAV HOLST – St. Paul’s Suite for String Orchestra

CD Free Spring Plant Exchange

When: Saturday, April 28, 2012 10:00 AM – 02:00 PM
Where: Green Plate Special Garden, MLK & E Union
What: Share your seeds, plants and garden stuff. Come take what you like. You do not have to contribute in order to take something. Please bring veggie starts and seeds to share with each other, Green Plate Special and Alleycat Acres.

Car Wash Fundraiser for Umoja PEACE Center

When: Saturday, April 28, 2012 10:00 AM – 02:00 PM
Where: Sea Suds Car Wash 1426 23rd Ave (@ Union St.) Seattle, WA
What: Spring Cleaning! Come give your car a bath and support the Umoja PEACE Center.

UmojaFest is partnering with Sea Suds Car Wash to raise funds for summer programs for youth in the CD.

About UmojaFest PEACE Center

The UmojaFest P.E.A.C.E. Center is a multi-purpose youth centered cultural facility in the heart of Seattle’s historic Central District. The mission of the center is to inspire and empower youth through Positive Education, Art, Culture & Enterprise.

Free Launch Party for the Seattle Globalist

When: Saturday, April 28, 2012 06:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Where: Washington Hall
What: RSVP on Brown Paper Tickets

Join us Saturday April 28th to celebrate the launch of SeattleGlobalist.com! The Globalist is a blog celebrating the Seattle region’s international community and many connections to the rest of the world. We are having a launch party: Saturday, April 28th, from 6-10pm, at Seattle’s historic Washington Hall (153 14th Ave, between Spruce and Fir). The party is free–it’s not a fundraiser–we just want to have fun with all of you! Early in the evening, we will have a community dance workshop with the Seattle Fandango Project. Next, the wonderful journalist, community organizer, and Seattle Globalist Advisory Group member Naomi Ishisaka will give a brief talk. And then we’ll have a dance party, with music by the awesome Last Night’s Mix Tape. The evening will be emceed by Hidmo founder and OneAmerica Organizer Rahwa Habte, and MCDMstudent, journalist, DJ and youth media educator extraordinaire Jonathan Cunningham. We’ll have light snacks and a cash bar (all ages welcome – please bring ID if you want to have drinks!) with Chateau Ste. Michelle wines and Georgetown Brewery beer for just $3. We hope you can join us!

Immortal Dog Adoption Event

When: Saturday, April 28, 2012 11:00 AM – 03:00 PM
Where: Immortal Dog (1712 S Jackson St)
What: Join us as we host another adoption event with Salty Dog Rescue. We have some amazing pups for this event. Here are a few that will join us looking for their forever homes:

– Papillon mix

– Boxer Mix

– 2 black lab mix

– Yellow lab mix

– Yorkshire Terrier

– Terrier mix

Please pass the event along to anyone who might be looking for their new best friend.

Check out immortaldogpetsupply.com to see how we just saved 11 dogs lives. 

After a traffic stop in a 20th and Jackson parking lot escalated in July 2009, Demetrius James tried to exit the parking lot in a vehicle. Police officers hit him with a Taser through the driver’s side window and, after the car started moving forward, shot him in the hand.

James pleaded guilty of assault in the incident, but he also filed a lawsuit alleging that officers used excessive force in the arrest. But the courts have now thrown out the claims, saying that the officers were justified for both using the Taser and for shooting James in the hand, the P.I. reports.

James claimed he lost control of the vehicle when he was hit with the electric volt from the Taser. The vehicle moved onto Jackson, but the occupants bailed and fled on foot. The car rolled down the hill before colliding with a police cruiser. A professional piano player, James’ wrist was shattered by one of the shots, rendering it too stiff to play. He was seeking $15 million in damages.

Police stopped James and the two other occupants because they suspected the car was stolen. It was not.

Dashboard video of the incident shows how the incident went down:

Med Mix is open at 23rd and Union, serving up everything from fried chicken to gyros to, yes, Philly cheesesteak sandwiches.

I swung by about an hour and a half after they opened their doors, and the dining room was already full of eager falafel and chicken eaters. The staff was clearly still getting their bearings in the new space (figuring out the computers, etc), yet they pumped out orders surprisingly fast. I hardly had time to craft a clever Tweet before they called my number. Not bad for a first day open!

Med Mix has completely renovated the space, which was previously occupied by the Beehive Bakery. Before that, the space sat empty ever since the 2008 shooting of Philly’s Cheese Steak owner Dejene Berecha.

In other corner news, I saw a truck unloading kegs next door to the Neighbor Lady. So either Key Bank is throwing a massive party, or the Neighbor Lady is getting close to opening…