PHOTO: Dancers from Northwest Tap Connection performed a powerful routine on Saturday, Feb. 14, as part of Black History Month at EMP. A discussion about the transformative power of dance in urban communities followed the performance.
Susan Fried photo

Ring in the Vietnamese Lunar New Year

Seattle Center Festál: Tet Festival - Vietnamese Lunar New Year welcomes the year of the goat with lucky money, martial arts and Children of the Dragon, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Feb. 21 – 22, in

Seattle Center Armory and Fisher Pavilion. Revisit one thousand years of Vietnamese history at this festive celebration and experience the dance and visual arts of Vietnam.

The Festival opens with a traditional lion dance, accompanied by a live drum ensemble and firecrackers in a ritual designed to ward off bad luck and ensure a prosperous New Year. This excitement extends throughout the festival with a performance by accomplished Vietnamese singer Y Lan and the Miss Vietnam Washington Pageant.

Festival-goers may explore the cultural roots and contemporary influences of Vietnam through a special cooking competition, free arts and crafts classes, and offerings from over 20 food and crafts vendors. Children’s New Year activities, a health fair, a lion dance workshop and Li Xi (Lucky Money) giveaways offer delights for all ages.

Seattle Center Festál is a program of Seattle Center Productions. Admission is free-of-charge. For more information on Tet Festival and other Seattle Center public programming, click on www.seattlecenter.com/Festal or call 206 684-7200.

Free help with Tax Forms at the Rainier Beach Library

The Seattle Public Library and AARP have consolidated the free tax preparation service available in southeast Seattle. Tax help is no longer offered at the NewHolly Branch, but remains available at the Rainier Beach Branch.

Drop-in tax help at the Rainier Beach Branch, 9125 Rainier Ave. S., 206-386-1906 is offered on a first-come, first-served basis from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays through April 11.
Due to federal budget cuts, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is unable to provide the Library with certain tax forms and instruction booklets. Most IRS forms are available online at www.irs.gov. Black-and-white prints of the forms may be printed from Library computers for 15 cents per page. To request forms by mail, order online at IRS.gov/orderforms or call 1-800-829-3676.

Tax help at the Rainier Beach Branch is provided by AARP.

For more information, call the Rainier Beach Branch at 206-386-1906, visit spl.org/taxhelp, or www.spl.org.

University District ‘Find It, Fix It’ Community Walk

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray’s ‘Find It, Fix It’ Community Walks, focused on Seattle crime hotspots, are starting again in 2015. This first walk of the year will be held in Seattle’s University District on Saturday, Feb. 21 beginning at 11 a.m.

At the walk, community leaders and residents, police, and city officials will gather together to identify physical disorder and solve it. The City’s Find It, Fix It mobile app will feature a new “Community Walk” button to help report any street disorder observed the day of the walk in order to organize and expedite fixes in the neighborhood.

In 2014, walks in the Central District, Lake City, Rainier Beach and several other neighborhoods led to significant improvements made in those neighborhoods. You can watch videos, view photos and read actions taken as a result of these walks at: http://murray.seattle.gov/finditfixit.

Learn How to Start a Business at the Seattle Public Library

Entrepreneur and business coach Jeff Levy will present an overview on how to start and run a business from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 5 at the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium.

Library events are free and open to the public. Seating is limited and registration is suggested. Parking is available in the Central Library garage for $6 after 5 p.m.
At the workshop, Levy will share stories from his experience as a business owner and manager. Attendees will learn the fundamentals of starting a business, including incorporation, financing, stakeholder development and how to write a business plan. After the presentation, there will be a question and answer period.

Levy is a nationally recognized consultant and coach to individuals interested in exploring self-employment. Levy was a founding member of Windswept Capital, president and COO of Spider Staging Corporation, an officer at Flow International, and executive vice-president and principal of SafeWorks LLC. He is the co-author of "Making the Jump into Small Business Ownership."

This event is co-sponsored by the Small Business Administration (SBA) Seattle District office.

For more information, call the Central Library at 206-386-4636 or www.spl.org.

Network with Government Contractors at Regional Forum 

The Seattle Public Library and other regional government entities will meet and greet businesses and organizations at the 2015 Regional Contracting Forum (RCF) from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 10 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, 800 Convention Place, Seattle.

The event is free and everyone is welcome. Registration is required.

Representatives from the Library will be at the RCF to talk about free tools and resources that support business information needs. RCF attendees will have the opportunity to meet government contracting representatives and network with contractors, consultants, and suppliers all at one event.

For more information, call the Library at 206-386-4636 or www.spl.org.

Semi-Finals for The 2015 Global Reading Challenge Start March 3

Thousands of elementary school students from 54 Seattle public schools are gearing up for the 20th anniversary of The Seattle Public Library’s 2015 Global Reading Challenge, where students will compete as teams after they read and discuss a set of 10 books. The seven semi-final rounds will take place from March 3 through March 13 at The Seattle Public Library, Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium.

Library events are free and everyone is welcome. Registration is not required. Parking is available in the Central Library garage at the regular rates.
Dates and times for the semifinals in the Central Library's auditorium are as follows:

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 3 - Round 1

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Thursday, March 5 - Round 2

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Friday, March 6 - Round 3

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 10 - Round 4

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 11 - Round 5

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Thursday, March 12 - Round 6

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Friday, March 13 - Round 7

According to Global Reading Challenge rules, questions are read and repeated once. Teams have 30 seconds to write down the answer to a question.

A series of in-school challenges will take place in February at participating elementary schools. See the Library’s website for the list of participating schools. The top team from each school will then compete in semifinals against other top teams, and the winning schools from the semifinals will go on to compete in the city final. Adams Elementary School’s "The Little Team That Could" won the 2014 Global Reading Challenge.

The books for the 2015 Global Reading Challenge include:

"Home of the Brave" by Katherine Applegate

"Because of Winn-Dixie" by Kate DiCamillo

"Orphan Trains: An Interactive History Adventure" by Elizabeth Raum

"An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo

"How Tía Lola Learned to Teach" by Julia Alvarez

"Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It" by Sundee Frazier

"Seaglass Summer" by Anjali Banerjee

"The Game of Silence" by Louise Erdrich

"One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia

"Half and Half" by Lensey Namioka

The Library has also launched a suspenseful first episode of the Global Reading Challenge Book Team video. Will the Global Reading Challenge be shut down forever by the Evil Ignore-Ant and his Ignore Ray Machine? Will Book Team get kids to read again? Learn what’s at risk by watching the video on the Library's website and watch out for those laser beams!

The Global Reading Challenge is made possible by funding from The Seattle Public Library Foundation, The Norman Raab Foundation, Northwest Literacy Foundation, and the Ballard and Fremont Rotary clubs.

For more information, call The Seattle Public Library at 206-386-4636 or www.spl.org.

For more Seattle and Portland area events, see our Community Calendar.