You say you’re all about “the community?” Then get thee to Rainier Vista today at 4 PM for Jamil Suleman’s Beautify the Block Party, featuring rapper Raz Simone, poet Nikkita Oliver and the indelible efforts of the G.O.O.D. (Girls Out Here Opening Doors) Girls and B.A.D. (Build And Develop) Boyz, a crew of kids (read: future leaders) who will debut the music video for their new song “Bad Boyz.”
Rainier Vista is a “planned community” of mixed-income, single- and multi-family residences in the Southend of Seattle. True locals from the ‘hood can take you down memory road with far greater authority than I, but there was a time in my former life when I visited this newest incarnation of the Vista on a nearly daily basis, checking the integrity of the soil upon which these homes and community spaces would be constructed. Government subsidized housing in America is an imperfect science, but then we’re an imperfect society struggling to apply best social practices to a cultural core that has proven to be rotten.
Beautify the Block is a simple, organic response by Seattle’s oft-neglected neighbors, but it’s these brief celebrations that launch seeds to the wind.
(h/t The Stranger)
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