Latest news with #TacomaCreates
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
It's fighting, dancing, exercise. Learn about capoeira at this Tacoma studio
In a sunny, wood-floored studio space above the shops in Tacoma's antique row lie the practitioners of a centuries-old cultural art form. At once a style of martial arts, a spiritual practice and a form of self defense, it came together from an amalgamation of dances, fighting techniques and rituals from people across Africa who were enslaved and brought to colonial Brazil. Called capoeira, it has continued to foster a sense of community and belonging for participants in Tacoma since 2011. The organizers behind the Tacoma Capoeira Center hope a new studio space at 755 Broadway in downtown that opened last month will draw more participants who will maintain the art form's traditions – all free of charge. Thanks to a sponsorship from Tacoma Creates, True 'De Verdade' Emeka teaches Capoeira Angola – a more traditional style of capoeira – to the center's wide variety of participants. Emeka said some are drawn to capoeira because of its similarity to other forms of martial arts and the spirit of resistance it's steeped in. Its origins in various aspects of West African culture meant that the art form was outlawed for a time in colonial Brazil to discourage enslaved people from continuing to preserve their culture. But capoeira has endured, and that same mission is what drives its practitioners today. 'The ways in which those aspects of culture, elements of resistance, survive despite oppression just is really salient to today's life here in America – a strong need for liberation as art, and resistance as art,' Emeka told The News Tribune during a recent interview. 'That's what gets me into it. That's what keeps my heart.' Syed Taqi, or Mestre Syed as he is known to his students, first discovered capoeira as a teenager in Seattle and came to the art form after leaving a harsh childhood in Chicago. The center's work to keep capoeira classes in Tacoma free, he said, is part of his effort to give back to people who come from poor and working-class backgrounds as he did, so they might also benefit as he did. 'It was just so different from what I was used to, and just learning about the history, what it was about, profoundly changed my outlook and life,' he said. Taqi, who founded the Tacoma Capoeira Center, said a typical class includes both movement and music, where students practice particular moves or techniques and also learn to sing in Brazilian Portuguese or play the berimbau, a single-stringed traditional Angolan musical instrument. 'Without music, there is no capoeira, and it would end up becoming more of like a fight,' Taqi told The News Tribune. 'The music helps create the environment of a game, and we listen to the music and to the pace music, so we play to the pace of the music.' Others are drawn to it for the coordination, movement and exercise it promotes. Israel Alvarez, a regular student at the Tacoma Capoeira Center, said he began learning capoeira when he was serving in the military in South Korea and practicing other forms of martial arts in his spare time. When he was later stationed in Washington, Alvarez switched to the Tacoma Capoeira Center, and has been there ever since. Not only has he enjoyed the community, it has served as a form of calisthenic exercise for him. 'It supplements my regular training, because it keeps me very agile, keeps me thinking in an unconventional way,' Alvarez said. The Tacoma Capoeira Center offers classes two to three days a week for kids, teens and adults. Visit to learn more and sign up for a class.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tacoma Pride festival will move to new, bigger location this year. Details here
The annual free Tacoma Pride celebration will take place in Wright Park this year on July 12 from noon to 6 p.m., according to the Rainbow Center, the LGBTQ+ organization that runs the event. For the past decade the Pride festival has been held in Fireman's Park in downtown Tacoma, said Troy Christensen, the Rainbow Center's Board President. In the last few years more than 20,000 people attended the event, which pushed the center to look for alternative locations that could accommodate that traffic, he said. The 27-acre Wright Park, 501 S. I St., was found to be the only park in town that could accommodate crowds of that size plus food trucks, Christensen said. The park is also near bus and train lines. 'The parks department is on board, the city's on board, the county executive's excited about the location change,' he said. 'We think it will allow us to continue to expand.' This year attendees can expect musicians, singers, dancers and drag performances on two stages, he said. Although the event is open to all ages, there will likely be a beer garden limited to attendees who are 21 and older, Christensen said. A line-up will be published at a future date on Pride celebrations in Tacoma began in the early 1990s in Lincoln Park before moving to the Theater District downtown and then Fireman's Park, Christensen said. Tacoma's annual Pride celebration is funded primarily through sponsorships from local companies, vendor fees and a grant from Tacoma Creates, as opposed to large corporate sponsors, Christensen said. Although he wasn't aware of any big sponsors pulling their funding this year, Christensen said he is concerned there will not be enough funding for Pride given 'everything that's happening federally.' 'You see companies you would never expect to see pulling their pride flags and decimating their DEI programs and their commitments to equity,' he said. 'We don't know what will happen this year, but assuming that even the LGBTQ population of the South Puget Sound all shows up, it's still going to be huge.' Those looking to sponsor or support Tacoma Pride can reach out to info@ Christensen said the federal government is pushing the message that LGBTQ+ people are 'wrong and bad,' and events like this combat that message and show people they are celebrated, wanted and loved. Every year the Rainbow Center fields threats targeting the LGBTQ+ community, he said. The center will be working with the city to make a security plan for Pride, like it does every year, Christensen said. 'People often confuse Pride with one of the seven deadly sins. That is not what we mean by Pride. We mean Pride as opposed to shame,' Christensen said. 'And it is important because, you know, for most of human history, there has been shame associated with being a member of the LGBTQ community, and there is not any longer. As people come out and they find themselves, they want to say, 'Look, I am here, and I am not ashamed to be who I am.''
