When Shauna James Ahern and Daniel Ahern first learned they had won the prestigious James Beard Award, they were on a ferry heading to Seattle. The announcement arrived via Twitter, and the couple squealed like little girls, Daniel said.
The Vashon Opera turned five last fall, and according to its founder and artistic director Jennifer Krikawa, it’s full steam ahead for the thriving nonprofit.
Island author John van Amerongen caught a big fish when he landed the story for his new book, “Catching a Deckload of Dreams,” which van Amerongen will discuss and read from at 6 p.m. Friday at the Vashon Bookshop.
Every fall for the past 18 years, Christine Juarez, director of the VAA Center for Dance, has thought about spring. That’s because she has the challenging task of choosing and adapting a classical ballet to showcase her graduating dancers in the annual spring ballet.
Jean Davis Okimoto is an award-winning author and publisher with an impressive list of credits to her name. Only you’d never know it. Meeting her for the first time, Okimoto’s warm yet elegant manner, close listening, thoughtful responses and delightful humor belie her considerable accomplishments, the latest of which is the publication of “Five Famous Mice Meet Winston of Churchill,” Okimoto’s 21st book.
On the first two weekends in May, in a long-held tradition, Vashon artists will open their studios for curious art lovers to take a peek into their work-a-day world during the annual Spring Art Studio Tour.
The UMO Ensemble recently caught a tiger by the tail. With the goal of bringing a live performance to under-served Seattle schoolchildren, UMO performed “Red Tiger Tales” off-island to an enthusiastic crowd of 1,200 kindergarten through 12th-grade students.
Islander Peter Serko insists he’s a glass half-empty kind of guy. But judging from the story he plans to tell in a one-man show Saturday night at the Blue Heron, you’d never know it. With the provocative title “My Brother Kissed Mark Zuckerberg,” Peter spins a humorous yet poignant multi-media tribute to his late brother, David Serko, who died of AIDS during the height of the epidemic in New York City.
As a storyteller, creative writer and teacher Merna Hecht knows firsthand the power of the written word. Among her many projects is a poetry program she established five years ago for the students at Foster High School in Tukwila, which is recognized as the most language diverse high school in the country. A poetry anthology created by students this year is called “The Colors of My Past: Immigrant and Refugee Voices of Struggle, Migration and Hope.” Next week, Hecht will showcase the project at the Vashon Bookshop, reading student poems and inviting audience members to experience several of the writing prompts she used for the project.
Islander Cal Kinnear likes to ponder life’s big questions. For this natural-born philosopher dressed in the guise of a writer, former English professor and bookstore owner, the answers to his musings often appear in the form of poetry. His latest and fourth book, “The House of My Father,” explores what he calls the magical border between memory and imagination in a series of prose poetry about his late father. Kinnear will read excerpts and talk about his book next week at the Vashon Bookshop.
Six years ago, Christine Juarez, the artistic director of the VAA Center for Dance, offered her senior dancers an opportunity to choreograph their own dances. She called the program Original Works and included the student choreographed dances in the annual spring ballet.
Islanders will have to travel off-island to hear the Vashon Island Chorale when they perform at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 30, at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall.
Gary Cannon, artistic director of the Vashon Islandhorale and Cascadian Chorale, will explore questions about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with his mentor and former teacher, Abraham Kaplan, in the Arts & Humanities lecture “What’s So Great About Mozart?” this weekend.
