The Seattle Parks department is offering planning and and funding help for events in Cal Anderson, one year after the Capitol Hill occupied protest that filled the park and nearby blocks became a center of the Black Lives Matter movement in Seattle.
Meanwhile, an organizer who has focused on the art of the protests, has announced a CHOP Block Party weekend next month to mark the one-year anniversary of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone’s formation.
The city’s call for summer 2021 events doesn’t mention last year’s tumultuous months of protest in the park that culminated in December’s sweep and clearance of homeless encampments and activists from the public greenspace:
Do you have an idea for a fun event or activity at Cal Anderson Park this summer? Get help planning or funding your idea! Seattle Parks and Recreation is waiving many of the permit fees for new events in Cal Anderson Park this year, and staff is available to discuss event planning and related issues, along with answering questions about what kinds of activities are allowed under the Governor’s current COVID Guidelines.
The Seattle Parks support is part of the “2020 Cal Anderson” effort curtailed by the pandemic and the CHOP protests. The community program including the Cal Anderson Park Alliance has pushed forward since to organize community clean-ups and new lighting and could eventually lead to other resources like mutual aid facilities in the park. Cal Anderson is also busy with work to add new art as part of the AIDS Memorial Pathway and construction to strengthen and upgrade the park’s Waterworks fountain.
Last summer after Mayor Jenny Durkan’s July 1st order to sweep and clear CHOP, the mayor said she hoped the 2020 Cal Anderson initiative could grow to “memorialize” CHOP with art and permanent features in Cal Anderson.
It’s not clear if the city will be supportive of the planned CHOP Block Party event. Earlier this month, the city was still not issuing permits for “unrestricted events” like marches that can’t be controlled for the number of participants and social distancing.
Other large early summer events like Seattle’s Pride parade have already announced plans to hold virtual celebrations again this summer. On Capitol Hill, there is hope for safe, in-person Pride events later in the summer. Organizers of another major neighborhood event — the annual Capitol Hill Block Party — have not yet announced plans for this summer after moving the event online last year.
Slated for the weekend of June 11th, organizer Mark Anthony says the CHOP anniversary Block Party has not yet received a permit from the city. In the meantime, the event is calling for vendors including food trucks to be part of a weekend of speakers and live music in the park.
We’ve asked city officials about the anniversary event but haven’t yet heard back.
The city, meanwhile, is looking for ways to bring new gatherings and activities to the park. Organizers are invited to email [email protected] with ideas for events for this summer in Cal Anderson.
You can learn more about the CHOP Block Party here.
UPDATE 5/18/21 10:40 AM: Seattle Parks confirms that the application for the CHOP anniversary event is being evaluated by the city “but a permit has not been issued at this time and no City funding has been given to this organization for this activation.”
“This same group is currently discussing funding through the Parks Commons Activation program, but no grant or contract has been finalized,” a department spokesperson writes.
The spokesperson says events are again allowed in the park provided “they comply with current public health guidelines.” Applications are being accepted but no events have yet been issued a permit.
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Great idea, a block party to remember the event that derailed the community for the past year and to remember the death of 2 young black men. This should be fun.
I encourage everyone who is against this idea to email Seattle Parks and email the address at the bottom of this article. While we’re at it. let’s ask Seattle Parks to get rid of the gardens from CHOP and restore the green space in our park.
100%
I have painted all over the city in the past year, murals to help the community face covid, murals to stand as an ally against injustice and hate, and murals to help reconcile emotions in what was (to understate it) a difficult time to navigate. I painted the mural in the last photo of this article (the masked person with the words, “You have the right to remain heard”). I painted many works in CHOP, not only because of the importance of the movement and area, but because it has been my community for 16 years. Blood was spilled under one of my pieces last summer. When I saw that CHOP art is looking to anniversary this event, even capitalize on it, it took the air out of me. For many reasons, not least of which, CHOP art, with the city, essentially has stolen all the art created last year and has been making these plans without consulting the artists. They believe they have ownership of the art, our voices, and the rights of artists to even speak about their involvement in last year’s movement. This is a toxic situation and I caution every artist to consider reflecting on the moment of last year in their own way, thru their own terms. Not thru a “party” that trivializes everything.
The way I read the article made me think the city was asking for event submissions and that an outside group is proposing the chop anniversary thing. It so far does not sound like it’s been appoved. If you disapprove of the event, email parks so they know how you feel as an artist and can maybe take that into consideration.
Also, while I appreciate murals immensely, once they are painted, they shouldn’t dictate what then happens on that street or location. (My own opinion is that chop was the scene of two tragic deaths so I don’t think a party is warranted). Hopefully your murals will influence folks to think critically but ultimately they don’t change the use of a space.
Thanks for your perspective. This article in particular is sharing it far more as a “wait and see” / “let us know”. But posters have been made and other media is promoting the event. I was working with the Seattle Parks community committee late last year during discussions about rejuvenating Cal Anderson Park, including advocating for more public voices via art. I think some of these conversations have carried on into this very event. However, I vocally left this committee after watching the methods used during the sweeps of Cal Anderson Park (to install ping pong tables).
CHOP was a complex moment in our city’s history. I don’t believe it’s my role to gatekeep how it’s remembered or honored. But my interest, as a single perspective, lay with the art and artists. During this time, my art was my megaphone, and now I see the potential for it to be turned into a product. My art, as well as the art of dozens (if not hundreds?) of others is literally locked in a storage room with people fighting over who owns it (including the organizers of this event). These artists are not being consulted or included in this conversation, nor are they being allowed to retrieve their art.
To your point about murals dictating what happens at a location. I’m not sure what you mean by this, and I welcome a further dialogue. My intention on the plywood murals was always a conversation with the community. I painted nearly 30 pieces over the last year. I always assumed (as one does with street art) that these pieces had the potential to be temporary moments for us to share. Some businesses took them in when they opened back up. Some threw them away. Some people took them from the business’s property. Some were returned to me. And some are still up. At no point did I feel I was going to dictate a future for these locations.
Well said
Hon, this is what rabid Socialists do. They want to own you.
I disagree with your perspective, label, and diminutive language. This is what opportunists do. And frankly, I can’t fault someone like Mark Anthony for seeking out opportunity. I can, however, fault their methods, motivations, and actions.
Wow, this is gross and super tone-deaf. Also, has anyone looked at the misogynist comment this Mark Anthony person has posted on the CHOP art Instagram? Thanks, but I won’t be buying anything that person has for sale.
Came here to say this! The “organizers” of this event were the same creeps working directly with the Mayor last year. Mark Anthony and Rick are both gross, double talking misogynists. I can’t imagine there’s anyone on any side that thinks this is a good idea.
He claims to believe in women’s rights but it’s 100% performative. . Claiming to be progressive and then body-shaming/equating someone’s worth based on oppressive beauty standards ON YOUR EQUAL RIGHTS PLATFORM is the definition of hypocrisy. Mark Anthony is the LEAST qualified person to be representing any equal rights movement and should do some serious self-checking if he thinks he’s the right person for this job.
I doubt many do. There is art and there is graffiti and tagging.
The art is not the problem. The person who is trying to drum up clout from a movement he lacks understanding of, is.
I used to think Brexit was pretty crazy…
We should not be “celebrating” CHOP in any way, shape, or form. It was an unmitigated disaster for our city and for Capitol Hill especially, and is best forgotten.
This is super disrespectful to the families of the victims of CHAZ/CHOP, the neighborhood that was trashed by it, and the gay community during Pride month. it should be remember as the tragedy and disaster it was, not a block party
If I was at one of the many law firms suing the city for abdicating responsibility of law enforcement, fire, and ambulance services while turning over a city park to an armed socialist militia I’d be licking my chips waiting for the city condone a celebration of those events.
My guess is someone at Parks probably has the sense to make an excuse to deny this permit for some invented reason that will be largely palatable to the majority of the city residents who just want to move on from the chaos, murders, DV and sexual assaults, and business shakedowns that defined what chop and the encampment that followed were ultimately about.
Im sure we’ll hear from all the usual dummies on the city council voicing their support of chip as they desperately look to stick their face directly into the fan and cost the city more money for pointless virtual signaling and personal political gains, but if feels like the outside of the tiny group of activists rabble rousers that lack much of a life outside of street level vandalism, most of the rest of the city now looks back on chop with embarrassment.
What was chop again? Oh yeah an anti police pro-Black movement that took over a peaceful city park, created an unaccountable militarized police force for its own protection that then shot indiscriminately into a moving car killing a16 yo black kid?!?!?! Think about it, given two weeks of self rule the anti police, anti racist, socialist activists immediately created the same overly militarized trigger happy police force and then gunned down black male youths on 12th in the name of….. protesting police murders of young back males?!?!?! Really sounds like something we should be celebrating! 🤦♂️
“i’d be licking my chips”
Sooo….will Seattle Parks be assigning SPD to provide order/protection/etc at this event?
You have got to be kidding. They do that…this city is doomed.
Hold up- isn’t Mark Anthony the person who literally broke into the CHOP art storage space to steal the art for himself? This guy literally had the cops called on him to stop him from burglarizing the non-profit. Wtf?