This month at Cortona we have a series of pieces by artist and neighbor Sarah Slater! Here is a bit from her artist statement:

I have always 'tinkered' around with creative projects primarily for myself and my family; from creating household furniture out of papiêr mache, to photography, to sitting for hours at a time with a pencil drawing 1000s of tiny circles. I find that I am inspired to create one thing and from that a multitude of possibilities bloom.

The current project here at Cortona, grew out of wanting a portrait of my children other than the obligatory photograph on the wall. Circles crop up a lot in what I do. I love that the circle is such a simple form - the first shape a child will draw, and yet so much throughout nature and out manmade environment hinges on the strength and simplicity of its form. It can promote a sense of completeness, but also of endlessness. It is baffling. All-in-all, I find it comforting.

Come check out the art on display this month! Sarah can be reached at sarah_slater@yahoo.com.

A new community organization is forming on the corner of MLK and Union: Green Plate Special just signed a lease on the property and is looking forward to breaking ground later this month. What is Green Plate Special? Well, it is a garden-to-table program, formed independently to work with youth grades 6-8. Here is a bit about it in their own words:

Our mission is to be part of a movement that provides access to and tools for our low income Seattle youth to become the healthiest next generation, breaking the cycle that surrounds inadequate diet, poor eating habits, and the lack of access to and knowledge of healthy whole foods. This new generation of young people will be good citizens, who understand the rewards of taking on new responsibilities and have the resources and personal power to make a happy and productive life for themselves and their own future families.

You can read more in the about section of their website. We are excited to see such a positive vision for our youth, and hope you can join in if you have any interest or expertise in teaching practical skills and how our food connects to the world we live in. Look for news of their groundbreaking later this month!

As of January 1st, 2011 Cortona Cafe has transitioned ownership to a NonProfit, Cortona Community, INC. Cortona Cafe originally began in Fall 2009 with a desire to foster a place of reconciliation and community in Seattle’s Central District neighborhood; and as many of you may know, Will Little (a CD resident) and Brian Wells (of Tougo Coffee) came together to make Cortona the reality it’s been for over a year now.

To further this vision of reconciliation and community building, Will and Brian have donated Cortona Cafe to the community under the oversight of Jason and Foxy Davison. Jason and Foxy Davison are former teachers and mentors in the Central District for the past ten years. Currently, they serve and volunteer in various community organizations in the Central Area that promote harmony among Central District residents, empowerment for youth of color, and advocacy for the marginalized. Given the work the Davisons have been involved with—and the coincidence of Jason and Will having been college roommates—Will & Brian felt comfortable putting Cortona in the Davisons’ hands.

So what does this all mean for Cortona as we know it? Well, Cortona Community will own the cafe, the name will remain the same, and it will still be a casual place to enjoy a tasty waffle or hot espresso. Rather than displace the culture of Cortona, Jason and Foxy desire to augment the culture of the cafe with a focus on empowerment, hospitality, and community building. This Spring we will start a small vocational program for youth or young adults of color who are struggling in school or in finding employment. With regard to hospitality, we will host community dinners and continue to open up our space and walls to any groups or artists willing to come. Finally with community building we desire to establish a board of neighbors and Central District organizations to promote harmony amongst all facets of diversity in the area, as well as advocate for leadership development for the disadvantaged among us.

Too often, we find ourselves valuing “diversity” but never practicing it for fear of “the Other." We believe this need not be so, and true community can come by valuing our stories and unique backgrounds in a posture of love towards one another. If you have not been a part of our Cortona family to this point, we invite you now!

Hope To See You Soon!

~Your Friends at Cortona Community

Come enjoy dinner with neighbors and friends Sunday, January 30th at 3pm! We will be premiering a new entre at Cortona which will be piloted in the coming months. More importantly, this is an opportunity for residents and community members of our diverse community to get together over good food and conversation. “Sunday Dinner” is a free event in partnership with the Metro Seattle Sickle Cell Task Force and Clean Greens; there is a suggested donation of $5 for the entre.

Looking forward to seeing you there, and kids are welcome!

We are thrilled to announce the launch of a free web development class at Cortona taught by local web developers and geared toward High School students who are reasonably "good with computers" with little to no programming experience (It is, of course, open to anyone with a desire to learn). Our purpose in offering this class is to not only teach the basics of programming and how to build full-featured websites, but to spark a real interest in becoming an Internet entrepreneur - thinking how to build a useful site/service, increase web traffic, monetize it, create jobs, and be mindful of funding & exit strategies.

The format of the class will be as follows:

• It will begin at 7pm on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month at Cortona Cafe, starting Jan 17th and ending Dec 19th, 2011.
• ~7 days before the start of a class, homework/tutorials will be posted by the teacher (URL location TBA).
• The class itself will start with a short, 5-slide talk related to the homework.
• Right after the talk, "open community development night" starts where experienced developers can come work on their own projects along side beginners, helping them finish their homework (if it wasn't completed beforehand) and/or encourage them to blaze new trails with the concepts/tools introduced.
• With this format, students can jump into the class at any time during the year. They can work to get caught up, or just go the pace they are comfortable with while receiving one-on-one instruction.

The class will cover an introduction to the following:

• HTML (including new HTML5 features)
• CSS (including new CSS3 features)
• Javascript
• jQuery
• Ruby & Ruby on Rails (Object-Oriented Programing, Model-View-Controller paradigm, REST architecture, etc...)
• SQL (MySQL & SQLite Databases)
• Git (for version control)
• Test-Driven Development
• DNS, SSH, Unix Command Line, and Production Server Deployment
• Apache & Passenger
• Page Caching & Speed
• Scaling & Cloud Hosting Options
• Cron Tasks & Custom App Scripts
• Using APIs (Facebook, Twitter, & Google Maps)
• Business plans, funding sources, and exit strategies.
• and more....

From the very first class, students will have a working web application that will be expanded throughout the rest of the year. Space is limited to 15 per class and first priority is given to High School students - although anyone can follow the tutorials online. For questions, or if you are interested in helping teach some classes, email info@cortonacafe.com.

UPDATE - the homework tutorial for the first class can be found here.