I am walking toward the tall wall of seemingly endless rows of barbed wire. I see each step of mine, the foot of a child, exposed, frail and swollen. My fingers graze the fence as I begin a frantic climb. Advancing upward, my hands are shaking as each new grasp cuts abrasions into my skin, widening and deepening with each fresh slice. My head gets light, and blood drips from my palms as I clamp down to muffle screams of pain. I hear shouting in the direction of the guard tower, followed by a gunshot. Then, another. My body freezes, my muscles are shocked. As I fall, everything turns black. Abruptly, I wake up. This is always where I wake up.

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, memorialized as such by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005, approximately 24 years after I was born. Before 2005, I remembered the Holocaust in the ways many other Jews of my generation have; from recurring childhood dreams, to the shaking tattooed arms of elders, and comprehensive Hebrew school history lessons. Genocide was nothing one forgot — it was in your bones, in your body, and in your blood.

The Supperfield Museum of Contemporary Art is the only full-scale miniature art museum in Seattle, permanently housed inside First Hill’s Museum of Museums. Created by sculptor Jennifer McNeely, the SMCA began presenting its third show as the MOM re-opened earlier this month.

Unlike the recently opened 3,000 square-foot Seattle NFT Museum, the SMCA exists in a more tangible, albeit tiny plane. “It’s like a gem. If you discover it, you discover it. Any way that you experience it is good. You know it’s fun,” said McNeely.

In the face of the pandemic, Capitol Hill’s theater community is trying to grow. This February, Intiman Theatre debuts its first production in its new home on Capitol Hill. This will be Intiman’s first stage production since COVID cast theaters across the country into darkness — and first on Harvard Ave.

Velocity Dance Center has announced its 2022 season, its first season without a dedicated home on Capitol Hill. Interim artistic and managing director Erin Johnson shared with CHS how much the company has gone through in the past few years. “We went through two pretty substantial leadership transitions, we left our old space, we turned 25.”

Velocity left its Capitol Hill space on 12th Ave and has since developed a new strategic plan for what comes next. While its 25th season will be across a variety of venues, its future home will most likely not be on the Hill.