Intiative 100 - Schools Not Jails

Grey is teaming up with local artist Diana Falchuk and visionary activist Lisa Fitzhugh (Arts Corps) to host some upcoming events related to the local art community's support of Initiative 100... more on that later, what you need to know now is that time is running out to show support of this important initiative that could re-direct the disbursement of millions of dollars.

What this initiative is proposing is that the City of Seattle use the $260 million that it would take to build a new jail and invest the funds in upstream programing for the education of our youth. It is widely recognized that a significant investment in education is the most effective means of achieving a decrease in incarceration.


Initiative 100 has a few basic components:

1. The City shall negotiate openly, publicly and in good faith with King County to explore alternatives to a municipal jail, including extending the existing City-County contract for jail services.

2. The City shall conduct a rigorous, public analysis of how incarceration rates could be decreased in the short and long term while increasing public safety and positive outcomes.

3. The City shall develop and make publicly accessible a strategy to address racial disparity issues in arrest and incarceration rates.

4. The City shall place the matter of the new municipal jail before the electorate in a public vote.


We will keep you updated on Grey's support of the initiative and the upcoming events to be held in the gallery and our neighborhood.

Until then, we are urging the public to do some research about the initiative and find ways to help get it on the ballot for November. The deadline for signatures is June 8, 2009. At this point, the best and most effective way you can help is by volunteering to collect signatures. Please contact Rachel at i-100@realchangenews.org and get all the information you need to get started!! Volunteer signature gathering training is available and suggested for anyone interested!

-or-

STOP BY GREY TO SIGN THE PETITION

For more information check out the website for The Committee for Efficiency and Fairness in Public Safety.

Grey Gallery and Lounge featured on Seattle Metropolotan's Smart Drinker's Guide

Seattle Metropolitan recently published a new Best Bars edition, in which Grey was noted for being a... "different kind of bar, which, in addition to rotating exhibits of work by local artists every two months, features lectures, silk-screening parties, DJs, slide shows, and theater performances. An impressively stocked bar with three beers on tap and a menu including salads and savory and sweet organic whole-wheat crepes are enjoyed on salvaged black walnut and Douglas fir tables and a sprawling black leather couch. All combine to create, in Guttridge’s accurate estimation, a “community-centric melting pot of sight, sound, and really comfortable seating.”

Noah Grussgott in The Seattle Times

Noah Grussgott's current exhibition here at Grey, Caution Kid, received an honorable review last week in The Seattle Times.


See Rachel Shimp's piece here

POET Premier

This month, we are hosting a short film premier on Second Thursday, during the Capitol Hill Art Walk.

A blocked poet at the end of his days is stuck in an isolating routine at the edge of the world. He lives a bleak life, colorless, featureless, empty of human contact. The one exception: a list hanging on the poet's cupboard of everyone he has known. Name after name slowly gets crossed off the list with no reaction from the poet. Time passes. Unable to cross off the final name, a sudden impulse unlocks the poet's imagination and sensual memories, leading to a strange new artistic process: a form of alchemy.

Filmed in the dead of winter in Eastern Washington, Poet explores the life of the elderly, pushed out of the active flow of modern life and into still and often stagnant pockets. The protagonist suffers the pain of an unproductive artist, uninspired and unable to even remember what inspiration feels like. His way back into the land of the living is a strange journey through the eyes of the dead, reminding us how words have the power to set us free, and how an artist who has lived and lost can bring magic back into the world.

This 13 minute long, locally produced short starring Wil Mohney, Co-Produced by Val Mohney, directed by Jesiah Bell, Carey Christie, and Fort Dudak will be shown starting at sundown on Thursday, May 14th, and consecutively throughout the evening.

Thursday, May 14th
7pm
Free


Followed by SunTzu Sound, at 9pm
jazz + soul + past + present + future

May Day Silkscreen Party With Sabrina Small at Grey This Thursday, 7pm to Midnight!

Sabrina Small will be at Grey silkscreening your garments this Thursday night, April 30th, from 7pm to midnight. It's a great time to meet the artist, re-visit the Duality exhibition, have a cocktail and see what other people are getting hooked up with silkscreens. At past silkscreen parties we've seen hats, t-shirts, oxfords, hoodies, jackets, jeans, skirts, dresses, pillow cases, place mats, even a hard cover book. Silkscreens are only $5 each (cash only please) and all proceeds go directly to the artist. The three images above are examples of the 3 silkscreen images that Sabrina will have available (colors may vary). Make your old garment a new favorite!

May Day Silkscreen Party
Thursday, April 30th, 7pm to Midnight
$5 per silkscreen
All ages until 9pm
J-Justice spins from 9pm on (see Blueprint post below)

Capitol Hill Arts Walk

The Capitol Hill Arts Walk has recently began the process of revamping itself... and if you hear the name Blitz being thrown around out there, it is the new term coined for the arts walk.

There was recently a neighborhood meeting to go over details about all the new changes to the walk, and how it will be supported in the future. The Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce has taken on the neighborhood arts walk, and a variety of artists and business owners are getting more involved.

The walk now has in place: a professional PR person (a CHCC Board Director), a branding campaign and logo, a financial officer, sponsorship from the Stranger, partial sponsorship from Girlie Press for our printed materials, an after-party for the Art-On-A-Stick parade, a website in process, a Facebook page and Twitter account, and a pack of volunteers.

THEY NEED A FEW MORE VOLUNTEERS Please send an email to capitolhillartswalk@gmail.com if you'd like to be involved.

If you would like to learn more about the recent changes, and want to attend an Blitz meeting, here are some upcoming events that are open to public participation:

Blitz volunteer meeting Tuesday, May 5, 7pm at Vermillion

A&E meeting Tuesday, May 19, 7pm at Vermillion

Thursday, June 11, 5 - 8pm: BLITZ launch!

Blueprint

Every Thursday, join Grey and local DJ collective SunTzu Sound (who are recognized for their other resident night, Trust at Sole Repair, and City Soul Radio Show) for a mix of sounds that combine jazz + soul + past + present + future and equal a cosmic blend of urban cultures and organic rhythms.

The following excerpt is from their site, and explains who they are and what they're all about:

"Created in 2002, SunTzu is composed of four fine DJs: AC Lewis, Atlee (a.k.a. IMC Soul), Dr. J (a.k.a. 1Luv) and J-Justice, as well as Jayson Powell live on the congas. Together they have dedicated more than 50 years to music with soul—from brokenbeat to afrobeat, funk to jazz, hiphop to house.

Best known as torchbearers of the rising brokenbeat scene, SunTzu is fueled by a faithful following in the Northwest and beyond. The crew’s tireless efforts have made them an indispensable mainstay in Seattle, where they regularly book and promote top-shelf international talent and serve as the weekly hosts of Friday night’s City Soul on KBCS 91.3 FM. They were also recently nominated among Seattle Weekly’s “Best DJs of 2006” for their infectious club sets."

Music Starts at 9pm
No Cover
21+

Grussgott on the Stranger SLOG

Jen Graves posted a small piece about Caution Kid on the SLOG today. To view it click here.

Color Court

Join Grey Gallery & Lounge and Flatchestedmama on the evening of April 29th for Color Court:

Color Court is the precursor to Flatchestedmama's final Monochromatic May (a month-long performance piece completed in 2007, 2008 and now 2009), where the artist adopts an entirely grey wardrobe for the month.

All wardrobe items are subject to review at Color Court, where the public acts as jury, voting grey or nay on wardrobe items. Items found to be in contempt of Color Court will be sent to color corrections, those remaining will culminate a final inventory to be worn in Monochromatic May 2009.

Grey is the color between all and nothing. It can reflect confidence, independence and careerism (all) or looming weather, anger and depression (nothing). The integration of simple, self-created boundaries with daily-life performances like Monochromatic May provides Flatchestedmama with a heightened awareness of her 2004 decision to merge art and life.

Flatchestedmama is an artist who performs endurance and conceptual works. She likes sending and receiving old-school correspondence (snail mail) and she's a founding member of an all-girl, adult double-dutch team.

More information can be found at www.flatchestedmama.com

April 29th
8pm
Free!

By Proxy Live Tonight!

The Stranger today:

"Local duo By Proxy make their live debut tonight at Grey Gallery and Lounge at 10:30 pm. Featuring producer Jeremy Moss and singer Alicia Romero, By Proxy combine dreamy, mellifluous vocals à la Bel Canto’s Anneli Drecker with ominous atmospheres and beats & bass pitched compellingly between dubstep and triphop—think Various Production and Portishead, refreshed for 2009 ears.

DJ Biznotic will be spinning before and after By Proxy's set."

....Dave Segel on Line/Out

9pm

Free

21+

Throwback Saturdays

Every Saturday, Grey Gallery and Lounge, in conjunction with Manik Skateboards, Paperboy, Cratedigger Radio, Skull Candy and Luxe Riot hosts Throwback, featuring local DJs Neight1000, Sean Cee, WD4D, 10-4 Roger, Sosa and Phat Stevens.
downtempo, old school, hiphop classics & good vibes

Starts at 9pm
No Cover
21+

KEXP Poster

Check out the brand spankin' new poster our kick-ass design intern, Razi, just designed for the KEXP Capitol Hill neighborhood appreciation party mentioned below...

Look out for more designs by Razi on other promotional materials for Grey.