Arts

The Arts

A photo of the marquee outside the Tacoma Opera's premiere of the Tacoma Method opera shows a green rimmed marquee with the word "Rialto" in large block letters. There are office buildings in the background and the signs hangs above a street. In the far background is a blue sky with bright, white clouds.

Tacoma Method Opera tells history from a new perspective

That history tends to repeat itself, especially when people don’t learn lessons from the past, is the guiding sentiment for Teresa Pan-Hosley in her work as the president of the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation. This organization is solely dedicated to reconciling the dark history of the Chinese expulsion from Tacoma in 1885.

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The exterior of Steve's Cafe, later commonly known as Steve's Gay '90s, as it appeared in April of 1951. The real-life dining and entertainment hot spot is a setting in the historical fiction novel, The Farewell Tour. Photo courtesy of Northwest Room at The Tacoma Public Library, Richards Studio A57331-36.

‘The Farewell Tour’ brings readers back in time to Tacoma’s honky-tonk history

While the West Coast is known for grunge and surf rock, Stephanie Clifford’s latest novel, a piece of historical fiction, reminds readers of the roots country music has here, especially Tacoma.
Tacoma, a burgeoning port city on Commencement Bay in the 1940s and 50s, plays a central role in The Farewell Tour. The book is an American West tale of coming home, with a few forks in the road, that takes readers back in time over the protagonist’s life as she makes her way as a musician on the West Coast.

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Women’s History Music Moment: Bach’s Daughters

You’ve heard so much about the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, but there were daughters, too.

Bach was 23, and his wife Maria Barbara was 24, when the first of their children was born. They named her Catherina Dorothea. CD grew into a singer, and helped out in her father’s music work. Fifteen years passed, her mother died, her father remarried, and finally, CD Bach acquired a sister: Cristina Sophia Henrietta, daughter of Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach. CSH died at the age of three, just as another sister, Elizabeth Juliana Frederica, was born. EJF Bach would grow up to marry one of her father’s students.

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The newspaper clipping that mentions Rachel Page. Photo courtesy of Cory Eberhart.

Honoring women’s history through poetry

A group of poets in Kittitas County will honor eight important Washington women in verse.
March is Women’s History Month, and this Friday at Gallery One in Ellensburg, the poets will perform their crown of sonnets, a succession of seven, separate sonnets, at the Women’s History Month Poetry Extravaganza.

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Tacoma unveils Black Lives Matter mural

Along Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma, the city’s new Black Lives Matter mural unfolds across the 23,000 square-foot Tollefson Plaza in bright colors.
The mural cascades down the steps of the plaza and from different viewpoints, it reveals different faces, messages and meanings. The challenging space makes the viewer work to absorb the mural — something lead artist Dionne Bonner wanted.

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