Cascade Forward

We're taking to the streets once again because justice doesn't stop at the border. Join us as we call for accountability in the deaths of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Joan Sebastian Gurrero, and Lorenzo Selgado Araujo.

When government agents take a life, there must be independent investigations, transparency, and consequences where wrongdoing is found. Anything less erodes the rule of law.

Bring your signs, your voice, and your conviction. Peaceful protest is how ordinary people remind those in power that every human life matters, no one is above the law, and justice belongs to everyone—not just the powerful.

At the last Arts in the Park, my friend Jill gifted me with a peacock feather for my daughter's room. I carried it around, and wore it in my hat for a time.

At one point, a girl named Annabella approached me with this drawing. She had been following me around in secret and sketching the feather with the pencils and sketch pad in her Rubble Flowers pack!

Obviously, I'm going to frame it.

Thanks so much, Annabella. Bright, kind young people like you are the reason we do this!

We just dropped off 60 Rubble Flowers kits to the Ethnic Support Council of Cowlitz County! These free art supply kits are geared toward kids and will be dropped off with families when ESC does their supply drops.

Hopefully these will give kids going through tough or uncertain times a chance to express themselves in a way that will both make them happy and boost creativity. So many of us can relate to the need for art to get by.

We will keep them stocked as long as we can!

Oh, and they gave us some tyedye supplies for our next Arts in the Park. Thats what I call a fair trade!

We stopped by Magpie Books the other day just to say hi to Alex, and it reminded us of one of our favorite things about the store.

There's a free community food cart, usually outside the store (and sometimes just inside the door), stocked with easy, ready-to-eat food for anyone who needs it. It's supported by donations and by Alex herself, who has quietly put a lot of time, money, and heart into making sure people have something to eat.

We've seen people come by and take food from the cart, and every single time they've been kind, grateful, and respectful. They're just good people who could use a little help.

If you're looking for a small way to make a difference, consider dropping off a few individually packaged, shelf-stable foods the next time you're in the neighborhood. It's a simple act of kindness that goes a long way.

Thank you, Alex, for making our community a little kinder.

Join us as at Magpie Books Longview at 2:00 pm today for our monthly meeting!

Thank you to everyone who came out today!

We know it's easy to get burned out. When you find yourself demonstrating month after month, it can start to feel like you're shouting into the wind. But every time we put out the call, people keep showing up.

That says something.

It says people in this community care. It says they haven't given up on each other. It says they still believe we can build something better than what we're seeing now.

Change doesn't happen because one person gets angry. It happens because ordinary people keep showing up, together, even when it's hard.

So thank you. We'll keep standing together for as long as it takes!

The many adventures of the Longview Pride t-shirt continue in Chicago!

Longview Pride shirt spotted at The Barack Obama Presidential Center! 🏳️‍🌈

TLDR; ICE sucks, come demonstrate with us this Saturday, July 25th, at noon, at the Longview Civic Circle / RA Long Park.

Some people are wondering about Cascade Forward's identity lately. We're so busy I rarely have time to sit down and talk much about our overall mission. And it can be confusing looking at the people you know as the biweekly protest crew putting so much time into giving free art supplies to kids.

What's the intersection of free crayons and shouting about ICE?

It's the little girl in this picture. And the newly single mom who has to raise her alone.

Rubble Flowers - our free art supplies for kids project - started as a way to get creative tools into the hands of kids like the little girl in this photo. The world they live in is one that has no shortage of pain and evil. For the sake of adult politics, the lives of children are upturned, ruined, and in some cases even lost.

Conservative men and women who fear, deep in their souls, that the rising hispanic population somehow spells ruin for their own families, cheer on the murders of men like Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, or Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, because they see it as a victory for their "race."

Race is a fiction. Just like nationality. Just like the invisible lines that MAGA believes are worth killing for.

Obviously, some people consider these things to be core to their identities, and many are itching for an opportunity to kill for them. People like MAGA hero David Brouillette - a man who abused multiple women, even throwing boiling water on an exwife who was holding their infant baby. So fearful they are that the minorities in our country will rise up and treat them the same way they've been treated that they have become depraved.

And none of this is Joan Guerrero's daughter's fault. All she wanted was to play with her mommy and daddy. All she wanted was to drink juice and, probably, watch Paw Patrol. She doesn't care about the invisible lines, and the concepts that adults delude themselves into thinking are worth killing and dying for.

We pray that this little girl will find the inner beauty we know she has, and translate it, sadness and all, into art, or music, or something beautiful that can balance out the evil in this world. We hope she can take this ugly, ugly thing and become a strong woman. Will our art supplies help the many, many children living like this now? We can only hope.

But Cascade Forward does more than just hope. The art supplies are distributed through our 501c3 charity the Cascade Forward Project. But Cascade Forward, formerly Cowlitz County 50501, is an advocacy group. We stand up to authority that has gone too far, or become ineffective. We protested ICE all over the city multiple times. We protested our local officials who support ICE.

We don't care about your party, and we don't care about your words. If you are an elected official and you support what happened to this little girl and her mother, we will stand up to you.

Join us this Saturday, July 25th, at noon.
Bring a sign. Or use one of ours. We have lots.

Let's make some noise.

Hey y'all! The monthly meeting has been moved to next Sunday, 7/26! See you all at Magpie Books Longview at 2:00pm next week!

Today's Arts in the Park fair was a huge success. Kids painted rocks, made buttons, got their faces painted, played with sidewalk chalk and of course BUBBLES all for free, thanks for very generous support from Longview Law Group, ACLU of Washington, and friends and philanthropists Chris and Terry Carlson.

Throughout the 3 hour fair, we saw a couple of hundred kids come through. They played, painted, got Rubble Flowers free art packs, and had a blast.

These fairs give local kids a fun place to be creative in a stress free environment. Colors, bubbles, possibilities all get their creative minds going. That creativity is so important to developing free thinking, innovative, independent people. A kid who can create something sees that they can change the world - even if that change is, at first, as simple as a stroke of sidewalk chalk.

Our undying gratitude to our volunteers, who were absolute stars. Without dedicated people who care, events like this simply could not happen. Y'all made a magical day possible for so many kids. They'll remember this day for a long time. And we will always remember how awesome you were.

Please enjoy a selection of photos from today's Arts in the Park! Photos by the incomparable Greg Myers.