S.T.A.R.T.S. Youth hitting the streets with fresh produce every Wednesday from 12pm to 3pm this summer.

The S.T.A.R.T.S. Project is a 10 week program sponsored by the Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative and led by Central District non-profits and organizations.

As teenagers across the city search for working opportunities during the summer slow down, nine lucky youth from Seattle are experiencing the "green jobs" opportunity of their lifetime.

Over the spring, Cortona Cafe owner Jason Davison had a vision for a youth employment program based in the Central District that would allow for young people that are disenfranchised to learn about gardening, healthy foods, and how they can become a part of the green movement. The summer program Jason had in mind is called S.T.A.R.T.S. (Students Taking Agriculture 'Round The Streets) and as of two weeks ago, it officially came into fruition.

Along with a variety of key neighborhood youth workers, there are currently nine students that are a part of the program and they're doing everything from composting and working on farms to discovering healthy food options in the neighborhood and working on a potential dish to be displayed at Cortona Cafe. There are guests chefs involved, lot's of opportunities for learning, and best of all, the youth get paid to complete the program. S.T.A.R.T.S. has managed to partner with organizations like Ground Up Yesler, Community Kitchens NW, Rotary Boys and Girls Club, Metropolitan Sickle Cell Task Force, Green Plate Special, Alley Cat Acres plus the Clean Greens and Red Barn farms to keep the teenagers' fingers in the soil and they're making nutritious meals each week out of the kitchen at Immaculate Conception. There will be more updates coming on the program as the summer continues.

The 8th annual Langston Hughes African American Film Festival gets under way here in Seattle's Central District. It's one of the only African American film festivals of its kind in the Pacific Northwest and this year, they're scheduled to show roughly 40 high quality independent films. Among this year's crop of feature-length films, shorts, and documentaries from all across the world, Karen Toering who organizes the LHAAFF says they're are 22 Seattle premiers, seven world premiers, and a record number of filmmakers that will be attendance throughout the nine day event which closes on May 8th.

Here's a word from the LHAAFF website about everything:

This festival screens provocative films from independent Black filmmakers and films about the African American experience. The festival features panel discussions, readings, matinee screenings for middle/high school youth and audience ‘talk-backs’ with filmmakers, industry professionals and community leaders.

The opening and closing nights of the festival are set to take place inside of the Quincy Jones Theater at Garfield High School (400 23rd Avenue, Seattle) from the and the rest of the films will be shown at Central Cinema (1411 21st Avenue, Seattle). That's something which is important to note for Cortona customers as the entire film festival is in walking distance of the cafe.

On opening night, the big highlight is the Seattle premier of KINYARAWANDA with guest filmmaker Alrick Brown in attendance. Here is a trailer of the powerful film about the Rawandan genocide:

Other highlights include the popular film I Will Follow returning to Seattle for the second time and local movie 23rd and Union by Seattle filmmaker Rafael Flores being shown as well. Check out the full festival line-up and support it if you can.

This week we are highlighting Art Donnelly from Seachar, a "grass-roots, non-profit organization that promotes the widespread use of biomass waste to create biochar and generate clean energy for the purpose of mitigating global warming, rebuilding healthy soils, improving household air quality, and building green economies in the U.S. and developing countries."

Seachar is short for Seattle Biochar Working Group, and the group accomplishes its mission through "research, education, and the development and distribution of appropriate technologies." Check out this newspost about the work that Donnelly is doing in Central America with his clean-burning stove technology, and explore the website for opportunities to learn, donate, participate, and spread the word!

This week we are highlighting a couple business cards for practical services!

Earl's Cuts & Styles is located just two blocks up from Cortona, and offer high quality haircuts for a reasonable price. Check it out and support a local Central District business when you're due for your next haircut!

If you're needing someone local to notarize anything for you, Christie Ray is your local Seattle notary! Everyone needs this service now and again, and Ray is licensed and insured. You can contact her at christieray007@gmail.com.

Following up on our announcement of a new web development class for entrepreneurs & open dev night that will start next Monday, Jan 17th 7pm at Cortona - the first tutorial for students to complete before they come can be found here:

This is the first of 23 tutorials that will be rolled out over 2011 to help introduce web development to entrepreneurs. These tutorials will be published about a week before the corresponding free in-person class that will be held at Cortona Cafe in Seattle, WA on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month starting at 7pm. If you're in the area, come on by any time during the year. If not, feel free to follow along online.

While there are a ton of tutorials out there on every topic we'll be introducing this year, our angle will be to stick with the "give me the general concepts" and "let's just get this rolling" essentials and allow you figure out the details on your own (we'll point you to resources & other tutorials out there). We'll be tailoring the class to high-school students who would call themselves reasonably "good with computers" but may have little to no programming experience. However, even if you are 80 years old with decades of programming experience, we're hoping these tutorials will still be helpful to spark an entrepreneurial spirit and/or bring you up to speed on HTML5, CSS3, Rails3, etc....

Click here to get started »

Students are encouraged to work on the tutorial before coming to the class. However, if you get stuck somewhere in the tutorial or aren't able to work on it - feel free to show up and a web developer from the community will be there to help you out.