Brave Practice Activates Community Stories

We are focusing our efforts on our current local history project, Community Roots, and leveraging our theatre company, Brave Practice, to engage youth and community members in themes from our oral history collection.

Stories

Camp Quixote, 2007

A tent city that emerged in downtown Olympia in February 2007 in response to a city ordinance that restricted use of sidewalk space in downtown Olympia. It was the first visible tent city of its kind locally, although it's part of a much longer unfinished story about who has access to housing in the area and who doesn’t. We were interested in the moment the idea of a tent city first took root, and the alliances and community learning that are at the center of this story.

Driftwood Day Care, 1971

A childcare center at The Evergreen State College. In 1971, Driftwood Daycare was initially conceptualized as faculty support at the College. However, the center opened to student families in response to the shift of women entering the workforce at that time. A small abandoned farmhouse located on Driftwood Road became the grounds for the center up until the mid-’80s.

The Liberation Cafe, 1996

A collectivist space established in the mid-nineties as a hub for activists to work, collaborate, host events, and engage with the community. The cafe occupied the top floor of Bulldog News in downtown Olympia. Over three years and thanks to the efforts of a small core group of organizers, hundreds of people passed through and benefited from this affordable, creative space in myriad ways. The need for affordable space is a theme that comes up repeatedly in conversations with activists and creatives in our town, even as property costs continue to rise exponentially. The Liberation Cafe lost momentum and ended in 1999 when its hosting business Bulldog News closed

Brave Practice at Work

Thank you!

We have received an Inspire Olympia Impact Grant from the City of Olympia for the continuation of this project!

Statement of Non-Discrimination

The Olympia City Council has made compliance with the City’s Nondiscrimination in Delivery of City Services or Resources ordinance (OMC 1.24) a high priority. As an InspireOlympia grantee, we agree not to unlawfully discriminate against an employee or client based on any legally protected status, which includes but is not limited to: race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, marital, status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or the presence of any disability.

Community Story Stewards

At Window Seat, we value relationships, transparency, and trust. We consider ourselves stewards of other peoples’ stories and we never share a story without the person’s feedback and ongoing consent. We do not own the copyright to the stories gathered and consider them on loan to us by project participants.