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.
That guy is sleeping on the cement again, next to the comfort station at the Rainier Beach terminal. What food do I have, I think, cycling through what I brought for dinner. Today it's cinnamon swirl bread. I grab the loaf from my bag and walk over there.
After he...
Leroy's on the bus tonight. He rides often. Time passes like nobody's business when he's around. Tonight we're in spirited conversation, gesticulating like a couple of Italians. We pause as the next group of passengers boards."Hi," the male half of an incoming couple says. "We're homeless and don't have...
He's the younger guy with the fro cut to look like he's wearing a pair of headphones.
If it was ever a fashion, it came and went quickly, but I suppose this young man wears it as well as one can. Our discussion starts by my asking if there's another...
I'm yelling out the window at friendly faces. We're on the 7, going through lower Pioneer Square. First it's a man I don't know, but who knows me. Then there's the guy who's always dressed in fluorescent construction gear. There he is, outside the Men's Shelter deep in conversation...
I'm doing lunges at Henderson, down and up the inside of the coach, when a girl in sweats and horizontal zebra stripes comes forward, tentatively peeking in with her two dogs. My door is open.
"Hi," I say.
"HIIIIII!," I say again, recognizing that late-teen face--it's Celia. She used to ride the...
He got on along with the great mob at 4th and Pike. Somebody in front of him was taking an extra moment to pay cash, and he'd tapped his ORCA card and snuck quietly past, but my "how's it going" reached his ears. The man had been planning to...
This was right after the big game concluded. The entirety of the city, in its best effort to impersonate a small town, seemed genuinely despondent, and who could blame them? Months of fever-pitch anticipation, with no climax. I was feeling a touch heavy myself, but for unrelated reasons.
"How's your...
Two teens board at Henderson. They walk to the back, then immediately turn around and walk back up, looking for seats as far away from the back lounge as possible. That's odd. It'd be pretty hard to explain this to Rosa Parks, but today's youngsters of color often do...