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🤔 Portland is our Facebook friend?
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🤔 Portland is our Facebook friend?

MELT THAT FREEZE. “We’re a very techie city where people are introverts that hide during the winter,” says Moorea Seal.
(📸: Marissa Alves)

COME TOGETHER

Moorea’s new book — available online and in stores today — is made up of fun and revealing lists you can do alone or together. One prompt: “List the ways you have helped your loved ones through hard times.” And for Moorea, it’s about engaging IRL with the people you want to get to know better — hopefully fostering connection and healing in divisive times.

Writer and Evergrey reader Nia Martin caught up with Moorea to get her take on togetherness and finding connection in Seattle…

What inspired you to write Togetherness on a personal level?

I had this vision of all my friends being scoops of ice cream and that life is a beautiful banana bowl with all these different flavors. If there’s just one or two, that’s still delicious, but it’s so much more fulfilling when it’s a full bowl.

Some relationships are tougher than others. How does your book get at that?

Everything that’s packed into this book is done in a way that you should be able to engage with a slew of humans in your community. From really deep friendships, to maybe a mom you don’t feel very connected to, or a friend you lost touch with, there’s ways to find connection. It’s within those safe spaces that you get to navigate differences and apply that with those that are a little trickier.

Seattle has grown so much. How do you stay connected here?

We’re a very techie city where people are introverts that hide during the winter. I’m all about silly and fun activities and finding your weird niche. What brought me to Seattle in the first place 14 years ago was the belief that I could find other quirky people here who maybe didn’t fit in more stereotypical American communities.

Three ideas for connecting?

» Rock climbing – I love rock climbing and have met people through that, which have developed into deeper friendships. Seattle Bouldering Project is my favorite, and I used to climb at Stone Gardens in Ballard.

» Trivia nights – Right now I’m enjoying Geeks Who Drink Trivia, which happens all over the city, and the trivia at A Pizza Mart in Belltown is my go-to for a trivia-pizza combo. [Check out more great trivia nights in our roundup.]

» Come by my store! – Our store [downtown] hosts events from fashion shows to book signings, yoga, Friday happy hour, tarot readings, workshops and more.

Who are you most excited to do your lists with?

I’m curious about both of my younger sisters and how we [ended] up completely different types of women — even though we had one message of what a woman should be. That’s nice to see we all found our own path. I want to ask questions to figure out how they got there.

Which Seattleites would you want to get to know better?

Moorea’s new book is published by Seattle’s own Sasquatch Books and available here. Thanks to Nia Martin for contributing this interview! Know someone awesome in town you want to talk to? Hit reply or email us at [email protected].

NOW HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON IN YOUR CITY

Boost the vote. It’s one thing to text your buddies and tell ‘em to vote. It’s another thing to find out which of your buddies live in districts where races are tight and then tell ‘em to vote. Now some locals have an app for that. It’s called VoteWithMe, it was created by Seattle’s Will Friedman and Evergrey reader Kim Rachmeler, it can be used to reach Democrats or Republicans (though it doesn’t hide its progressive point of view), and it compares your contact list to public records to show you who could use some of that good ol’ peer pressure. 🗳 (GeekWire)

Like it never happened? As many as 542 of our neighbors got convicted years ago for something they’d never get convicted for now: possessing marijuana. So after months of working on it, our city court says it’s ready to take all the misdemeanor marijuana convictions it handed out before marijuana was legalized and just wipe them from the record. Those convictions, by the way, went disproportionately to locals of color. “While we cannot reverse the harm that was done,” said Mayor Jenny Durkan, “we will continue to give Seattle residents … a clean slate.” (The Seattle Times)

‘In Russel we Trussel.’ Fun fact: Chris Pratt is a huge Seahawks fan. That’s right, the dino-wrangling star of Jurassic World grew up in Lake Stevens, has a house in Washington state, and was about as giddy as all of us when our Hawks recovered from an 0-2 start with a 24-13 victory over the Cowboys on Sunday. Here’s his adorable, fan freak Sunday tweet. And here’s a video where — at 7:11 — he gives three reason why he loves the Seahawks so much. Alongside some nobody named Jennifer Lawrence. 😍 (Wired)

Out with the old. Our city council just gave the official green light to a huge $700 million renovation of KeyArena. And by renovation, we mean they’re going to save that iconic roof and rebuild just about everything else. As part of the deal, developer Oak View Group will hire a “community liaison” to talk with neighbors, pay $2.5 million toward affordable housing, and pledge $20 million to charitable causes. When does demolition start? Just as soon as the National Hockey League gives Seattle a team. Which could happen by the end of the year. (The Seattle Times

This map says we love Portland. Facebook brought the data. Harvard, Princeton, and New York University did the analysis. And the graphics team at The New York Times packaged it all up in this fascinating map. What’s it show? How connected each county is to every other county in America, based on Facebook friendships. And considering how much we like to throw shade at our frenemies down in Portland, it’s worth pointing out that if you carved out a new set of 50 states based solely on the pull of geographic connections, Seattle and Portland would sit in the same one. ❤️ (The New York Times)

PARTNER EVENTS

🍿  TODAY – Saturday: Be a local film boss at the Local Sightings Film Festival, which features films and filmmakers making moves around the Northwest (Capitol Hill)

✊  TOMORROW: Brush up on the history of civil rights and how it’s playing out in your world today at this Impact Hub Lunch + Learn (Pioneer Square)

☕  Thursday: Venture into the mystical world of tea at this Foundation tea party. (Ballard)

🏠  Wednesday, Oct. 3: Get top tips on how to navigate our housing market at this Impact Hub Lunch + Learn (Pioneer Square)

🤓  Thursday, Oct. 4: Hear your neighbors dive into 5-minute talks on a fascinating topic with Ignite Seattle (Capitol Hill)

🎙️  Friday, Oct. 5: Get a fun primer on Seattle history from the recession of the glaciers to the opening of Ballard Locks at this Foundation event. (Fremont)

AROUND TOWN

TODAY

🗣  Hear an insider’s account about the private prison system (First Hill)
🎈  Make paper lanterns with your kiddos and light up the sky (University District)
🍸  Head to a literary happy hour to hear from local writers (Capitol Hill)
💪  Learn how to tell Seattle’s story with The South Seattle Emerald (Hillman City)
🍿  Laugh as Lindy West, Charles Mudede, and Ahamefule Oluo critique Elvis’ It Happened at the World’s Fair (Capitol Hill)


TOMORROW

🎶  Meet up with your neighbors for a music listening party (Capitol Hill)
🎶  Sing your heart out with International District regulars at the threatened Bush Garden bar (International District)
💡  Hear the buzz on why everything revolves around bees (Capitol Hill)
💡  Learn how the civil rights movement shapes our world at this Evergrey partner event (Pioneer Square)


THURSDAY

🎟  Check out a musical spoof on a wacky murder mystery — through Sept. 30 (Edmonds)
👋  Get geeky about Seattle trivia with Crosscut columnist Knute Berger (Capitol Hill)
🎶  Cheer and sway to Brazilian jazz legend Sergio Mendes — through Sept. 30 (Belltown)
👋  Say ‘f*ck cancer’ and support Seattle photographers Lois and Jerry Levin — thanks to reader Madison Pappas for the rec! (Downtown)
🍵  Learn all about a good brew at this tea party and Evergrey partner event (Ballard)


FRIDAY

🍿  Watch a bunch of films en françaisthrough Oct. 4 (Queen Anne)
🗣  Hear from undocumented, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas (Downtown)
🍷  Sip boutique wines from around the Northwest with your neighbors (West Seattle)
💡  Talk about midterm elections and motherhood with veteran and Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth (Capitol Hill)


SATURDAY

🍵  Put your pinkies up to sip on an assortment of teas — through Sept. 30 (Queen Anne)
🍿  Catch flicks by Southeast Asian directors — through Oct. 7 (All over)
🏈  See Seahawks-themed cars with fellow 12s at HAWKtoberfest (Kent)


SUNDAY

🎈  Take the fam for a free boat ride at the wooden boat festival (South Lake Union)
🎟  Peruse handmade goods and tarot cards at a mystical market (Capitol Hill)
🍴  Bring the kids to nibble on all kinds of grilled cheese (Fremont)


Going to one of these? Take us with you! Email a pic to [email protected] or tag #theevergrey on Instagram. See more upcoming events on our events page, and add your own events with an Evergrey membership. Is an event sold out? Hit reply to let us know and we’ll update the listing in tomorrow’s newsletter.

AND WE’RE ROLLING

The Evergrey team is on the hunt for a superbly talented video producer. If you are that someone and/or know someone, get in touch. ✌️

Oh and stay tuned for tomorrow. We’ve hit a couple big milestones, and we can’t wait to tell you all about ‘em.

See you then. – The Evergrey

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