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KNKX's Take the Mic and South Seattle Emerald present Election 2020 - The Youth Vote: A conversation about leadership, ethics and values and how they factor into choosing a candidate, a free Zoom event on October 14 at 4 p.m. PT. The event will be hosted by KNKX News Director Florangela Davila and South Seattle Emerald Editor-in-Chief/Publisher Marcus Harrison Green.REGISTER HERE.

Young people make up a projected 37% of the 2020 electorate, yet historically they vote less than other age groups. Will it be different this time? The pandemic crisis and the call for racial justice and institutional changes are top concerns as we move closer to this high stakes election. Ethics and values also underpin our decisions. This virtual event aims to bring together first-time and new voters with older adults with a track record of civic leadership to discuss a number of issues through the lens of beliefs and values, touching on things like:

Because this is leading up to the general election, we want to frame this conversation around the power to change systems for the greater good and how that ties in with being an informed voter.

The six young interviewers will ask the four speakers questions relating to the themes of conflict/failure, challenges, accountability, transparency, priorities and representation, with the speakers drawing on their personal and professional experiences; and offering examples of how they have faced challenging situations and how that speaks to leadership and community building.

Speakers

Gary Locke - As Governor of Washington State (the first Chinese American to be elected governor in United States history and the first Asian American governor on the mainland), U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and U.S. Ambassador to China, Gary Locke has been a leader in the areas of education, employment, trade, health care, human rights, immigration reform, privacy, and the environment. Currently, Gary Locke serves as the interim president of Bellevue College, which is the third largest higher education institution in Washington State serving nearly 30,000 students annually.

Victoria Woodards - Victoria Woodards has called the City of Destiny her home for nearly her entire life. She is a proud graduate of Tacomas Lincoln High School and served as a soldier in the United States Army. Before becoming Mayor of Tacoma in 2018, she served for seven years as an at-large member of the City Council. During that time, she launched the Citys Equity and Empowerment initiative which led to the establishment of its Office of Equity and Human Rights. She spearheaded the Citys Project PEACE initiative which bridged community members with the Tacoma Police Department and has worked to more fully engage the City's youth in community decisions that impact them every day, by expanding Student Government Day and establishing the Mayor's Youth Commission of Tacoma..

TraeAnna Holiday - TraeAnna Holiday is a true Seattleite who has watched her city change in many ways. She took her creative passion to Howard University, where she studied theater management in her first year of college. Then through the communications program at UW Tacoma, she began to understand her value in the field; always wanting to tell the stories she saw before her. In a Communities in Economics course, she learned about the academic version of displacement- gentrification. Through studying abroad and being displaced by gentrification, she's now fueled to tell her neighborhood's story through film and education while working on the solutions. Working with Africatown Community Land Trust and producing content with Converge Media are two of the ways shes begun to do just that. As a steward of community with a passion for storytelling, she brings her ideals to life and strives to help others do the same.

Michael Liang Since 2018, Michael has been Program Director of Spaceworks, with the aim of making Tacoma culturally vibrant and economically strong by providing space, training and resources for artists and creative entrepreneurs. Prior to that, he spent ten years as a designer and creative leader with the National Park Service. Michael has a B.F.A. in art and design from the University of Michigan, a certificate in natural science illustration from the University of Washington, and is currently finishing his M.S. in Education. He is passionate about building community and tapping into the transformative power of the arts for social good.

Young Interviewers

Bitaniya Giday, age 17, is the 2020-2021 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate. She is a first-generation Ethiopian American residing in Seattle. Her writing explores the nuances of womanhood and blackness, as she reflects upon her familys path of immigration across the world. She hopes to restore and safeguard the past, present, and future histories of her people through traditional storytelling and poetry.

Alicia Ing, age 18, is a freshman at the University of Washington, pursuing her studies in International Business and Diversity. Alicia has been active in community advocacy and leadership for over four years, and currently works as the Program Coordinator for the Seattle-based nonprofit Hey Mentor.

Mia Dabney, age 16, is in the 11th grade at Cleveland High School in Seattle, and is a youth council member for Skyway Youth Network Collaborative. She is currently working with the NAACP youth council to bring ethnic studies to the Seattle School District. Mia says, I believe changes will come if we continue to rise up together and value and respect each others differences.

Brooklyn Hose, age 18, graduated from Curtis Senior High School and is currently a student enrolled at the University of Washington with an interest in either a major in English or Business and a minor in Ethnic Studies. She is a local artist in the Tacoma community and emphasizes through her work the importance of empowering the voices of the underrepresented and marginalized.

Dylan Tran, age 22, is a full-time educator at Lincoln High School in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington. He is a child of Southeast Asian refugees and a graduate of Lincoln High School and the University of Washington.

Maeve Glackin-Coley, age 17, is currently a junior at Stadium High School in Tacoma. Shes interested in social justice, philanthropy, painting, and skiing. Maeve is a member of Greater Tacoma Community Foundations Youth Philanthropy Board and the Tacoma Mayors Education Youth Committee.

Event Hosts

Florangela Davila has been the News Director at KNKX since 2019. She spent 14 years working in both news and features at The Seattle Times, earning local, regional and national awards. As the managing editor at Crosscut/KCTS9, she helped transform the newsroom, driving online and broadcast coverage about immigration, equity and the arts; she hosted the TV news segment Crosscut Now; and she chaired the organization's Race and Equity Committee. A former faculty member in the Department of Communications at the University of Washington, she also worked in communications at Forterra, an environmental nonprofit where she curated and produced the Ampersand stage show. She has a B.A. in both Political Science and French from University of California-Berkeley and a Master's in Journalism from Columbia University. She got her start in public radio as a freelancer at KPLU in 2008.

Marcus Harrison Green is the publisher of the South Seattle Emerald, and a columnist with The Seattle Times. Growing up in South Seattle, he experienced first-hand the neglect of news coverage in the area by local media, which taught him the value of narratives. After an unfulfilling stint working for a Los Angeles based hedge-fund in his twenties, Marcus returned to his community determined to tell its true story, which led him to found the South Seattle Emerald. He was named one of Seattle's most influential people by Seattle Magazine in 2016.

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Join Us For Election 2020 - The Youth Vote Event - knkx.org