5 Reasons to Give BIG to Bushwick Seattle

Listen up, Bushwick, because Tuesday is a big day. A BIG day, as in the Seattle Foundation’s Give BIG 2014, a one-day online giving frenzy where donations received by participating organizations qualify towards a pro-rated matching fund. If you’ve been looking for ways to help out your favorite nonprofit, now is the time.

To donate to Bushwick during the GiveBig on Tuesday May 6th – click here.

We came up with five reasons to consider the Bushwick Book Club Seattle on Tuesday May 6th.

1. We value the collaborative, inspirational space that exists between different genres of artistic expression.

In other words, books and music are our jam. No other book club picks ’em like we do. And besides our counterparts in Brooklyn and Malmo, we’re just about the only book club we know that gathers to perform original music inspired by literature.

2. We support musicians and performers as they build their careers.

Our Bushwick slate of performers features artists from all genres and experience levels (including our youth performers) and it is our mission to provide support to developing musicians. Our all-volunteer staff facilitates recording time, performing opportunities, and publicity for artists. Bushwick musicians frequently perform artist showcases at lively venues around Seattle, including The Triple Door and Egan’s Ballard Jam House. We view the Bushwick community as a bit of a matchmaking service, since many of our musicians have formed artistic relationships through Bushwick and gone on to produce albums together! In fact, you might notice a few literature-inspired songs on Bushwick veteran Tai Shan’s new album, Living Fiction, produced by another Bushwick player, Mark Blasco.

3. We bring your favorite authors to our shows.

Our April show featured original music inspired by Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life, and Molly herself showed up to talk books (and chocolate cake.) We are continuously inspired by the Seattle community of writers and regularly collaborate with Copper Canyon Press and Jack Straw Productions. It’s great to be based in a community that produces so many amazing books! (In fact, we can’t say just yet, but we’ve got some exciting news ahead.)

4. We give kids access to arts education.

In March, we spent two weeks working with kids at Aki Kurose Middle School and Odle Middle School to provide in class songwriting workshops that aligned with their school’s curriculum. Through Bushwick’s education program STYLE (Song Writing Through Youth Literature Education) students wrote songs inspired by To Kill a Mockingbird and learned about the artistic process from Bushwick musicians Nate Bogopolsky and Geoff Larson. Students at Aki Kurose performed their original work for friends, family, and members of the community in a special presentation at a respected neighborhood venue, The Royal Room in Columbia City.

5. Geoff Larson wears different hats.

We mean this both literally–the man has an awesome array of fine hats–and in the figurative sense. The Bushwick Book Club Seattle is a big, all-volunteer job that takes a lot of heart, and our director Geoff Larson puts 110% heart into the production and development of the organization. His dreams for Bushwick are even bigger. Donations to the Bushwick Book Club Seattle will help us to start building those dreams, which include: expanding the education program to schools across the Rainier Valley who are in need of arts education programs, bringing more support to local musicians, and bringing literature and music into even more neighborhoods across Seattle.

We’d love your help so that we can continue to expand our programming and dream BIG (the best way to dream). Take a moment tomorrow to donate what you can to the Bushwick Book Club Seattle!