Nathan Vass
Nathan Vass is an artist, filmmaker, photographer, and author by day, and a Metro bus driver by night, where his community-building work has been showcased on TED, NPR, The Seattle Times, KING 5 and landed him a spot on Seattle Magazine’s 2018 list of the 35 Most Influential People in Seattle. He has shown in over forty photography shows is also the director of nine films, six of which have shown at festivals, and one of which premiered at Henry Art Gallery. His book, The Lines That Make Us, is a Seattle bestseller and 2019 WA State Book Awards finalist.
Into the mic I said, "Let's get outta here!"
"We got a wild a driver tonight!" the husband of the mid-aged couple sitting up front quipped.
"It's gonna be one wild ride! How you doin'?"
"Good," the wife answered. "We're trying to get some gelato!"
"Oh, excellent! Earlier this year I was in...
I first saw him at 14th and Jackson, chatting with some NightWatch pals. It was 6:45, long before the 9pm entry time for that program. He was dressed like a dad fallen on hard times– grey sweatshirt underneath a dog-tired leather jacket, khakis and a small knit cap. Forty,...
I wrote the following in 2012:
At Letitia a gregarious basketball-player-looking character steps off. He always seems to know everybody. He'll get on the bus, plunk down somewhere in the middle, and a minute later be laughing with a few passengers. People know each other out here. Once he stepped out of...
Image above: On the left, my friend Purpelle Tramble, the filmmaker. On the right, some guy with short hair...
Two unrelated interactions with different late-night 7 riders featuring almost exactly the same import, and not one I was expecting:
Two men are up front, street guys. Both about thirty, lanky men...
Twenty-seven minutes into Sunday, but that's just for those counting at home. Broadway and East Pine is the center of the world for some, and here, where lights and faces streak through the slow-shutter filter of a thousand bustling doorways, it's still Saturday night. Listen to the clang of...
There's so much police, fire, and medical sprawled out everywhere you'd think it was the parking lot at Bellevue Psychiatric. This place looks like Willowbrook State in the eighties. The intersection is blocked at East Pine and Belmont, and we're not going anywhere fast. "Looks like we're gonna maybe be hangin' out...
"Alright, Cloverdale is next," I told them, "by the Mini-Mart. And South Lake High School. Also, this bus continues up the hill, to Prentice. We're goin' to Prentice Street tonight."
"You make it sound good!" a voice behind me exclaimed. "Make me wanna to go up there!"
"I try to advertise...
"Hey, Bashi."
He tells me I'm his favorite, the best. He asks if I remember him.
"Of course I remember you!" I was just about to ask after his young son when he beat me to the punch with–
"My son, he asks about you!"
"He asks about me? I was just about to...