Badass Fun Facts
Susie Revels Cayton
Susie’s daughter, Madge, was the first black woman to graduate from the University of Washington.
Polly Dyer
Her mother was a homemaker, and her father was a coast guard engineer.
Odessa Brown
Before working in the Seattle Community, she was a licensed hairdresser.
Mitsuye Yamada
Yamada’s love of poetry was shared by her father, Jack Yasutake, who wrote senryu and founded a club devoted to the seventeen-syllable form.
Mary Matsuda Gruenewald
Her family owned a strawberry farm and attended a local Methodist congregation.
She joined the US Cadet Nurse Corps, traveled to Clinton, Iowa, and began training. The war ended before she could serve.
Guela Gayton Johnson
She had a passion for jazz music and was known to be an accomplished jazz singer. She used her musical talent to unite communities and raise awareness about social justice issues. Her powerful voice and love for music added an extra dimension to her advocacy work, making her a multifaceted and inspiring figure in the Seattle community.
Dolores Dasalla Sibonga
She was the first-ever Filipina woman to be a part of the Seattle City Council. She took over the Filipino Forum and ran for mayor but lost.
Dorothy Laigo Cordova
According to the South Seattle Emerald, former mayor Jenny Durkan stated that Nov 22. is Dr. Dorothy Laigo Cordova Day.
Janet McCloud/Yet Si Blue
Sometimes called the Rosa Parks of the Native American rights movement.
Ramona Bennet
One thing that is super interesting about Ramona Bennet and that adds to her work with ICWA is that she has been a foster parent for local youth.
Yvonne Swan
“Her case became known as the first women’s self-defense case. It set a legal precedent and would impact other self-defense cases by women and gender-oppressed people.”
Octavia E. Butler
Octavia E. Butler never learned how to drive. She always walked or took the bus to get where needed, befitting her environmentalist concerns. While living in Seattle, neighbors often offered her rides, which were usually refused.
Karen Troianello
Karen Troianello received $369.16 in settlements from the lawsuit. She donated half the money back to the Cougars track team.
Claudia Castro Luna
writes and teaches in Seattle on unceded Duwamish lands, where she gardens and keeps chickens with her husband and their three children.
Farnaz Fassihi
Microsoft Teams utilizes an interview they conducted with Farnaz Fassihi in training sessions with corporations for team building and conflict resolution.
At just 19, she worked as a freelance journalist (stringer) in Iran, contributing to Western media organizations like The New York Times.
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha has written and co-edited 10 books. Their book Love Cake has won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award.
Aleksa Manila
Manila has over forty drag children and is dedicated to inducting a new drag child every year.
Angela Garbes
Angela Garbes started writing as a food writer for a weekly Seattle paper, “The Stranger.”
Humaira Abid
In 2012, Abid’s installation “Breakdown in the Closet” won the International Museum of Women’s Community Choice Award for the MAMA: Motherhood Around the Globe exhibition.
Janelle M Silva
Has traveled to 22 countries and believes in dessert every single day.
Jaiden Grayson
Jaiden loves food. She has a particular zest for seafood and will always be down for a hearty seafood boil.
