When reading through press materials for local playwright Rosalind Reynolds’ new work, Julian the Humble, the word “anchorite” was used more than once to describe the fascinating woman the title character is based on.

Before searching out more details about Reynolds and the Middle Ages mystic and author who was her muse, I admit to needing to open a dictionary to look up what in the heck an anchorite was. In simple terms, it is defined as a “religious recluse” or “a person who lives…

George Washington Black is resilient. In order to survive, he needs to be.

As imagined in this year’s Whatcom READS selection, Esi Edugyan’s 2018 bestseller Washington Black, “Wash” is a 12-year-old orphan enslaved at a sugar plantation in Barbados when readers are first introduced to him. The year is 1830, and his narrow worldview is about to expand.

When he’s spirited away from the plantation by his brutal master’s abolitionist brother, Christopher “Twitch” Wilde, to build and…

When registering for the virtual Country Living Expo and Cattlemen’s Winter School taking place Jan. 29-31, a required field directs participants to check a box indicating whether they’re an urban resident, rural resident, small farm owner/renter (five acres or less), farm owner (six acres or more) or “none of the above.”

Living near downtown Bellingham, I reside firmly in the “urban resident” category, and a perusal of the programs being offered at the event presented by the Livestock…

Bellingham made history this month, appointing the first woman as the city’s chief of police. Flo Simon began her assignment as interim police chief, following a ceremony where she received the badge of office from Mayor Seth Fleetwood.

Interim Chief Simon is a 30-year veteran of the department who most recently served as Deputy Chief. Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood selected her to serve as interim chief upon the retirement of former Chief David Doll. Doll announced his retirement…

When Cayley Schmid interviewed herself in the pages of Cascadia Weekly last September in advance of the Bellingham Irish Festival, Virtually, the lauded fiddler and multi-festival-founder proved not only that she has a sense of humor, but also that she remains committed to keeping connected the community of musicians and music-appreciators she’s cultivated over the years—even if it’s via online events taking place in the midst of a global pandemic.

With the Bellingham Folk Festival,…

No matter where you exist on the political spectrum, you’re likely pretty worn out by the events of the past few…weeks? Months? Years? Most of us had hit a point of exhaustion long before the invasion of the Capitol building by domestic terrorists (call them what you will, but I believe “terrorist” to be the most accurate descriptor) snapped us out of our alert fatigue and back to a state of horrified attention.

Now that President Joe Biden has been inaugurated, I’d like to…