8th Annual Edmonds Museum Scarecrow Competition

Time is running out to vote for your favorite entries in the 8th annual Scarecrow Competition, sponsored by the Edmonds Historic Museum. Voting can be done on the Edmonds Historic Museum website until Nov. 1. Only one vote per category per person is allowed. The categories are Residential, Retail Business, Service Business, Financial/Insurance/Real Estate, Arts/Government/School/Civic, and Food/Beverage Business. Winners in each category receive a certificate, a 2020 Museum membership and — most importantly — bragging rights. Winners will be announced Monday, Nov. 2.

ECA announces first-ever WE SPEAK Youth Poetry Slam Competition

Edmonds Center for the Arts invites young people, ages 13 through 21, living in the Puget Sound region to enter the first-ever WE SPEAK Youth Poetry Slam Competition. Submissions of spoken word performance responding to the theme The Year 2020 should be sent via video. The deadline for video submissions is Nov. 4, all submissions should be 5-minutes or less and include one or two original poems. Email submissions to gillian@ec4arts.org.

Three youth finalists will be chosen to perform live from the ECA stage during the virtual WE SPEAK Festival on Thursday, Dec. 3. In addition, the three finalists will receive a 30-minute virtual mentorship session with Hawaiian slam poet Kealoha in the week before the festival.

The festival is a virtual celebration of spoken word poetry and storytelling, seeking to embody the complex themes and concerns of the year 2020. To learn more, click here.

Aspiring authors – November is National Novel Writing Month

National Novel Writing Month was written about in a recent article on My Edmonds News by Laura Moe. The Nanowrimo program is setup to challenge participants to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Joining the challenge through nanowrimo means having a community to support you, get motivation to write and help with accountability. The most exciting part is that it is free.

Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra’s 26th season opens Nov. 7

SRJO will celebrate the start of a new season with a live-streamed performance of Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool. This event will be the first concert of a four part live-streamed series, part of the 2020 Earshot Jazz Festival.

The concert showcases jazz from the classic 1949 Birth of the Cool recording of Miles Davis. The all-star group performing this event includes trumpeter Jay Thomas, saxophonists Alex Dugdale, Mark Taylor and Travis Ranney, trombonist Dan Marcus, drummer D’Vonne Lewis, pianist Randy Halberstadt, bassist Phil Sparks, artistic co-director Michael Brockman, and many more.

Tickets are on sale here.

— By Rachel Gardner

Rachel Gardner has a heartfelt appreciation for art in all forms and believes everyone is an artist, some just don’t know it yet. A dedicated and involved Edmonds resident, she can often be spotted onstage cracking jokes between sets or in the audience enjoying local live performances. She enjoys being playful with her art and finding unique ways of expression, like forming a boho-grunge-folk ukulele trio with local Edmonds moms.