Now with art
on the corner, there won't be violence.
For the growing number of African-American artists.
This new gallery is a place to shine.
We want to keep beavers where they're at and let them keep doing what they're doing.
They lurk in the wetlands
in the wetlands of Seattle parks, but you might be surprised by the benefits
these beavers provide.
I started sharing her artwork with friends and family,
and everybody was always like, Oh, this is fabulous.
And for those experiencing dementia, this art class
helps them reconnect to their past.
These stories and more next on City Stream.
Hi, I'm Tatevik Aprikyan welcome to City Stream from the Memory Hub.
November is Alzheimer's
Awareness Month, and that's why we're here at the Memory Hub.
It's a place that brings together people, programs, and partners
to explore what it means to live well with dementia.
They also offer in-person and virtual classes here, plus wellness
programs that support people with memory loss and their families.
Much more on that just ahead.
Not far from here, a new place
in the central district is celebrating African-American artists.
Recently, hundreds of people came to learn more about Arte Noir.
Nicole Sanchez explained the concept behind the new gallery and retail space
and why it's embraced by so many.
He's talking to us.
I feel like.
I feel like he's inviting us in to his space.
Tiffany Bennett is excited by this artwork.
But it's beautiful.
And this is my first painting and I feel like this is a great first piece.
She says it's extra special to purchase
it from Art Noire, a new retail shop and gallery.
The gallery site is a collaboration with Onyx Fine Arts Collective.
Together, they're putting the spotlight on black artists and makers.
It's good to stand in a space that's for us.
Art is needed. It's important.
I always want to make sure that I purchase
it, support it, and introduce it to the youth.
Tiffany was born and raised in Seattle, Central District.
She lives upstairs here at Midtown Square, above the gallery.
She's thrilled to welcome the building's new anchor tenant
and believes it will bring positive changes to the area.
I feel comfortable coming in here and walking around and purchasing
from someone that looks like me and that even if you don't look like me,
if you're in this space, you understand that this space is important to us.
There was violence in the area
and now with art on the corner, there won't be violence.
This new space is a dream come true for the founder, Vivian Phillips.
There's other stuff, too.
She's been running an online art magazine, which shares the same name
for several years.
This is done by two key awards.
And now it's come to life in a new way that she
hopes will have lasting impact.
Once the thing was developed, which is reverence and discovery
and it for me in it is indicative
of the community's desire to have this space be revered,
but also for us to have some inspiration going into the future.
Phillips worked
with the developers of Midtown Square on several public art installations
outside of the building, which also feature black artists.
When they said to me, What do you think about being
the anchor retail tenant?
And I thought, that sounds perfect because that really gives us
an opportunity to be reverent and honor the legacy.
On the corner of 23rd and Union.
But this new space isn't just another shop and gallery focused on making money.
Art Noire and Onyx Fine Arts Collective are both non profits.
The artists and makers featured here receive 100% of the net proceeds,
something that is rare and refreshing.
Our primary goal is to put money in the hands of these artists and really
uplift them as artists and bring them much more visibility if we can.
And then. I'm proud.
One of the artists whose work is getting a lot of visibility
is Yegisaw Michael, who goes by Yegi.
His unique art is something you can't miss.
What can I say?
I'm like having a space.
Having a home is one of the best things for all artists.
And I'm very honored to be part of this and my work being sold here.
Yegi's creation is called Visual Rhythm
and includes more than 200 ceiling totems, as he calls them.
17 of them are custom designed to represent the first African-Americans
who came to King County roughly 170 years ago.
The team here hopes the idea of uplifting and supporting black artists
like Yegi will grow to other areas and become part of a bigger conversation
about finding balance in communities as they grow.
Some of the conversations that I've had have been really around
how much joy it brings people to drive by our walk by this corner.
Look through these windows and know that it's a black space.
It feels to them and to us like it's
another step in reclaiming some as a community.
That means so much to us.
Because every major American city, if you look at statistics, has suffered
a high degree of decline in African-American residency
in traditional black communities, and that's due to gentrification.
And what happens is we become erased.
It's always about we used to be here.
The same is happening here in Seattle.
And we just really need people to know that we are still here.
This is our book where we feature 74 local artists.
I'm in here as well.
Ernest Thomas has been uplifting black artists for many years.
He's the president of Onyx Fine Arts Collective.
This is their second location in Seattle.
Thomas says he's grateful for this new collaboration, especially since it's
hard to find space for the growing number of black artists in the area.
We began the look for them, started with seven, and now over a 17 year
period of time have identified 550 something on our list.
So, that says the artists are here
and they are.
We see in general there are more artists than there are places to show artwork.
Thomas himself is an artist,
so he understands the mission in a personal way.
Hello, my friend. Come in.
He also happens to be the inspiration behind the painting
Tiffany Bennett is buying.
It's a great example of black artists uplifting one another
in a unique and unexpected way.
That's it. That's my art.
And he says. Yeah.
And then he says, it says, that kind of looks like me.
He said, Yeah, but but I never
I'd never wear that suit.
Right now Arte Noir
is building out a new recording studio that will be used
for seasoned producers to help train the next generation of music creators.
Next, they do
wonders for the environment and many are at work in city parks.
We'll show you.
as City Stream continues.
You might not know the beavers call some Seattle Parks home.
These little critters bring with them a long list of environmental benefits.
Producer Michael Crowe explores how we coexist with urban wildlife.
Hidden deep in the green of Magnuson Park.
The work of engineers.
Tiny furry ones.
This is the main beaver pond.
This is where the beavers live.
Nature's construction crew hard at work in Seattle City Parks.
And tonight.
Wow. We'll see.
We might be able to see a little better.
Elyssa Kerr of the nonprofit Beavers Northwest is on the lookout for them.
Their lodge is just around the corner and across the pond.
Through all of these sticks, if we had X-ray vision right across that way.
Magnuson Park has long been home to urban beavers landscape architects
shaping this pond to their liking.
The signs are everywhere.
So this is the perfect example of a beaver chewed tree.
They've chewed
all the bark off of the base of this tree and have started to chew into it.
You can really tell it's beavers because of these awesome teeth marks
that are in here.
They do that for a number of reasons to eat the sugary cambium layer
under the bark and to gather building material for dams and lodges.
But it's not just their construction that shapes the landscape.
Their destruction encourages more growth, too, like on the stump of these willows.
And if I feel it, I can feel all those beaver teeth marks.
It's kind of got this sharp, pointy feel that beaver chew sticks have.
And after it was chewed, it sent up new sprouts.
And you'll see that happening over and over and over again.
Beavers can continue to harvest and eat from them and build from them.
And yet we still have this amazing growth.
There are other benefits as well.
Beavers slow the flow of water to form wetlands, creating habitat
for animals ranging from deer to weasels to insects and birds.
Those wetlands can also improve water quality by slowing it
down on the landscape. In 2020 and 2021.
Beavers Northwest conducted a survey with a King County Water
Works grant in partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreation and found
13 active beaver colonies on Seattle Parks land.
But like any roommate, coexisting takes work.
They also start to flood our trails.
Beavers Industrious efforts can lead to expanding ponds and trails that don't
drain properly if left alone, which is what brings beavers northwest here.
They maintain a complicated relationship with their namesake animal,
partially
foiling their efforts with limiting devices to let water through dams.
They've been managing them here since 2013.
Everything I do is trying to help people and beavers compromise.
We want to keep beavers where they're at and let them keep doing
what they're doing, but also make sure that, you know,
people infrastructure is still accessible and usable.
But those installations are tough to see here through the summer
vegetation, just like the beavers themselves.
Yeah.
So that could be one full size.
So a few miles away in Kirkland.
We're just putting apart the fence panels.
Right now,
we can get a better look at work underway on one of those limiting devices.
Forbes Lake is surrounded by homes close to the water.
And beavers living here have been a bit too successful in their dam building,
raising the water level.
This is a notch exclusion fence, which is a method
of keeping beavers away from a notch in the dam.
So allowing water to flow through the dam at a level that we determine
and prevent flooding.
For years, the homeowner has been doing battle,
tearing down what the beavers build up.
The goal here is to reduce that maintenance
so that the beavers can be good neighbors to.
The alternative to this type of device is that
beavers would be completely removed from the system, so they would
not be able to be here or do
their work, have babies continue to spread out on the landscape.
So by installing a device like this, we're helping these landowners live
with these beavers and kind of compromise with them.
We want these benefits that beavers provide
by building dams, creating wetlands.
But we don't want,
you know, the flooding of infrastructure, and particularly in this case, you know,
septic systems
like we don't want that being flooded and then causing water quality problems.
This mirrors how water at Magnuson Park is managed with a similar device
called a pond leveler,
which is basically a hidden drain that the beavers can't close off.
Beavers Northwest helps the city manage several sites
with urban beavers like Longfellow Creek and Meadowbrook Pond.
I was just wondering if I heard somebody chewing.
Back at Magnuson Park.
I think I'm just wishful thinking.
The Twilight Hunt for these critters continues.
Yeah.
So I'm really looking for like a floating head.
Beavers really just cruise across the water.
This is their active time
when you're most likely to spot them right as the sun sets.
They get to work.
So silly with that big stick.
And sure enough, here they are with mouths full, changing the landscape
one branch at a time.
They belong here.
And really, when we restore these areas, I think one of the great stories
at Magnuson Park is that, you know, this park used to be a naval air base
and then these wetlands were restored in 2010s.
So fairly recently, this is a pretty recent wetland system we have here.
They dug all these ponds.
They planted tens of thousands of willows
and beavers, moved in pretty immediately and said, wow, thank you so much.
This is wonderful.
And now they're here with the ecological benefits
they bring from water quality to climate resilience.
A little dive.
And the added benefit of knowing these incredible creatures call Seattle home.
Just like us. It's really special.
I think.
It's just there's such a funny little animals and big animals,
and it's just neat to
see them doing what they do and being so successful at it.
I didn't have to work very hard to get here.
You know, I pretty much drove here and parked
my car, walked 20 feet, and here we are and we've got beavers.
And that's amazing.
Beavers Northwest
also offers free evening nature walks to explore how beavers help
both the environment and salmon recovery efforts.
The Nature Walks will pick back up in the spring.
You can learn more by going to BeaversNW.org
Just ahead on CityStream a special program that helps those with dementia
reconnect with their past.
CityStream returns from the Memory Hub.
This place is a vital resource for those living with dementia and memory loss.
A few years ago, we profiled one of the programs offered here.
It uses art to help people look within when dementia starts
to cloud the mind and communication becomes more challenging.
Some people are still able to share their precious memories through art.
Nicole Sanchez explains.
Julia Blackburn loves her time at Elderwise.
It's sort of like you're free to do whatever you want
and you don't have to worry about whether it's perfect or not.
And that's great.
The North Seattle nonprofit in its 21st year
offers programs for people with memory loss.
Seniors here like to socialize, share meals,
take field trips and paint, which is a big hit with this group.
I want to see how many stars are still in the sky.
We have our adult day program and that's the best.
That's the heartbeat. The laboratory of all of our work.
Of facilitating community.
And being in gracious space together.
Julia is one of seven local artists from the Elder Y's program
whose work is being displayed at Seattle City Hall in the Anne Focke Gallery.
The exhibit, called The Artist Within, is produced by The Art of Alzheimer's.
It kicked off in mid-January with a reception attended by several
of the artists.
It is such an honor to be presenting the art
It's beautiful. I like the colors.
This is the second year for the exhibit.
49 pieces are on display and show unique views of the world
from the artists who all have some form of memory loss.
They sometimes paint things they remember, especially from childhood,
like the landscape where they grew up.
Art of Alzheimer's was founded by Marilyn Rachal.
She was raised in a family where almost all of her relatives
developed the disease.
Her parents told her and her siblings what to do if they developed Alzheimer's.
Our parents told us when we get Alzheimer's, walk away.
We're not going to remember.
Walk away. It's so good to see you.
How are you?
But Marilyn says something shocking happened when her mother, at age
89 with mid-stage Alzheimer's, started to paint.
This is what she first painted.
And I went, Oh, oh, my God, she's still here.
Completely changed my life.
I started sharing her artwork with friends and family,
and everybody was always like, Oh, this is fabulous.
We had no idea.
The paintings enabled her mom to continue to communicate with her family.
Marilyn says it was like a window into the thoughts
and emotions she could no longer express verbally.
She loved color and would sit looking out the window and watch cars,
calling out the colors she saw the one she could still remember.
This is what inspired Marilyn to create the Art of Alzheimer's.
How old are you?
Oh, just 25.
The more we realize that people living with dementia
have value, the more effort
and resources we will put into the opportunities
for them to live valuable and creative and enriched and connected lives.
A grassroots effort called Momentia is doing just that.
Empowering people with dementia to stay active and engaged in their community.
A lot of times there's that idea, which is a piece of stigma,
but that idea that the self is lost with dementia or Alzheimer's.
But when you get to view a piece of art
by an artist, which art in and of itself
is a form of self-expression, it really counters that idea.
And you recognize there is still a self there's there is a person there.
Then I'm going to raise my brush in the water.
And for artists
that Elderwise like Julia, sharing their art means the world to them.
Makes you feel like you've accomplished something, you know,
and people like what you've done and things like that.
So that's really, really fun.
With us now is Dr. Tom Grabowski,,
a neurologist and the medical director
of UW Medicine's Memory and Brain Wellness Center.
Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for inviting me.
So tell me a little bit about this Memory Hub.
You guys provide a lot of services here.
What specifically do you offer for people who are struggling with memory loss?
So the Memory Hub is our
it's really been our dream project over the last few years
and just opened this last spring, a nationally unique model
for creating a community center around memory loss and dementia for our patients
and for the community where we
model community of support for people living with memory loss.
In fact, you can think of this as like a third place,
a lowercase third place where you're neither patient nor a participant
in our research studies, but a person with memory loss.
And this is where where you can come for support, for programing,
for interaction with our aligned partners like the Alzheimer's
Association for Life Care, and Elderwise adult day program.
So someone who has memory loss or dementia, they come here.
What kind of programs can they have access to?
So we have we have educational programs where we introduce people to
our program, to a handbook that we've developed
to help guide people to live well with memory loss.
We have an a program, we call Adapt, which is a two week
mind and body wellness sort of boot camp for people with early stage memory loss.
That's designed for a patient in a study care partner,
usually a spouse, sometimes their adult child.
And that works on a principle of compensating
for memory loss by tapping into your strengths.
Because everybody with
Alzheimer's disease and related problems has strengths to work with.
Alzheimer's can be a very isolating disease.
For people who have it.
But it also takes a toll on caregivers and family members.
What kind of services do you offer to them as well?
Right. So we have. So.
So Alzheimer's disease definitely affects the whole family.
And so beginning with our
sort of
90 minute Zoom class, which we which we designed for the patient
and family and well, even before that, beginning with with family conference
that we might carry on in the clinic, you know, to disclose diagnosis
and talk about designing a care plan that involves the whole family.
And then we have other programing here as well.
We have a weekly online support group for caregivers.
We have a program that's led
by full life care, which which does caregiver training
using evidence based principles developed at the University of Washington.
So a very much.
A very family based approach here.
Yeah and integrated, right?
So we we think it's really important to
to build a dementia friendly community as well as to work
with individuals in terms of a strength based kind of approach to their care.
As you know, the Alzheimer's Association estimates that about 6 million Americans
live with the disease and that number is only growing.
So as a doctor, what are some.
Of those early signs that you look for that someone might need help?
Right.
So one thing is we often find that people are having mild
memory problems for some time before they come to attention.
And we're really striving to make a diagnosis early.
So for most people with Alzheimer's disease, some of the early signs
are going to be trouble remembering recent information.
Remember repeating the question for the same information.
So we have trouble retaining. We all forget things, right?
We forget where we put the keys. We forget where we're going.
But what's the difference between something basic
that we all go through versus something much more serious?
People are, when it's called to their attention, that
that the information has been there before and they don't recognize it.
That's usually a sign that something is worse, you know, more serious.
And especially when something important like an appointment are
important news.
We all have trouble retrieving names
and words at times, and it doesn't add up to a functional, significant problem.
But if the if your message is compromised, I can't get the message out
that's the problem.
Let's talk a little bit about treatment.
Recently, a new drug came on the market
that slowed the progression of Alzheimer's.
It's not a cure by any means.
But as a researcher, as a medical professional,
are you optimistic about drugs like this coming on to the market?
I do think that we're in an era where we're going to start
to see medicines that do slow down Alzheimer's disease,
but maybe not reverse it, maybe not completely stabilize it,
but we're going to slow it down, I believe, in the next few years.
You said you're optimistic.
So, will we see a cure for Alzheimer's.
In our lifetime or are we talking generations down the road?
I think I think you will definitely see effective treatments
where we slow the process down.
You know, one
thing we haven't talked about is
Alzheimer's disease process occurs
in the brain years before people have any symptoms.
One of the more recent developments is we're learning how to track that
presence of Alzheimer disease in the preclinical period.
So this is coming.
You know, we we will in the next
few years have blood tests that track this and we'll be able to detect in advance.
And then these treatments that you're hearing about, we'll be applying them
to people who don't have symptoms yet because of the way the math works out.
If you could just slow the disease down by five out of those 15
preclinical years, then you would cut dementia in half.
So it's I think prevention is actually a realistic approach.
Anything else you want to add in terms of research or here at the Memory Hub?
Well, we do.
So the University of Washington is also, you know, one of the longest
running Alzheimer's disease research centers in the country.
We're closely connected to the Memory Brain Wellness Center,
working on different
aspects of the biology of Alzheimer disease, working on brain
imaging, working on biomarkers that detect the disease early.
We try to give patients an opportunity to participate
in these studies if they want, although it's always optional, of course.
Okay.
Dr. Tom Grabowski, thank you so much for your time.
Yeah, thank you very much.
If you'd like to learn more about the Memory Hub,
you can visit their website at the MemoryHub.org.
That wraps up this week's episode of CityStream from the Memory Hub.
If you'd like to watch more outstanding Seattle Channel programs, visit
our website SeattleChannel.org and click on feature shows.
I'm tired of like a breakdown.
Thank you for watching.