Graduations, Art Walk, more for your West Seattle Thursday

(Rufous Hummingbird with lupin flower, photographed by Trileigh Tucker)

Welcome to a cooler Thursday! Here are highlights from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:

POSTCARDS TO VOTERS: You’re invited to join in this weekly gathering, part of a national movement, 10 am-noon at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor), explained here. (5612 California SW)

GRADUATIONS! Big night at Southwest Athletic Complex – two commencement ceremonies: Chief Sealth International High School at 5 pm, West Seattle High School at 8 pm. (2801 SW Thistle)

WEST SEATTLE ART WALK: 5 pm “until late,” venues around West Seattle welcome you with art displays and/or food and beverage specials for Art Walk-ers. The venue list/map is just the start:

Another venue: HomeStreet Bank (4022 SW Alaska; WSB sponsor) is open 5-7:15 pm for you to see the creations from the art contest for this year’s West Seattle Garden Tour (coming up June 23rd) as well as “some additional works.” Help HomeStreet support the Garden Tour, which itself supports other nonprofits … And it’s the last Art Walk at Wallflower Custom Framing (4735 42nd SW), which is closing soon. Featured tonight: A retrospective by Jessica Creager. Wallflower’s closing sale continues, too. … More Art Walk highlights in this roundup on the Art Walk website.

SECOND THURSDAY OUT! The Senior Center of West Seattle‘s LGBTQ+ social group gathers for a barbecue. 6 pm.

WANT TO STUDY AERONAUTICAL TECHNOLOGY? Informational event at South Seattle College (WSB sponsor), 6 pm – details here. (6000 16th SW)

WORDS, WRITERS, WEST SEATTLE: 6 pm at Southwest Library:

Chief Seattle wrote nothing down during his life, yet his words — both real and imagined — are known throughout the world. The result is a man made up of both historical and fictional aspects, from which conflicting messages can be gleaned.

David M. Buerge, a biographer and a historian to the Duwamish Tribe, Seattle’s mother’s people, spent more than 20 years exploring the man from a variety of sources to reveal a leader of epic character. He was a warrior, an orator, a benefactor, and a visionary who helped found the city that bears his name, Seattle, the largest city in the world named after a Native American.

Chief Seattle’s vision was ambitious: a prosperous, multiracial city. But toward the end of Seattle’s life, he saw that vision become a tragedy. In the current century, is Seattle the city edging any closer to the vision of Seattle the man? Buerge explores this complex figure to uncover how one man’s story still shapes the identity of the city.

Free. (9010 35th SW)

(Photo by Marc Milrod)