History Comes Alive at Harbor Island Studios!
Uncover the layers of time! ⏳ Invisible Histories presents two nights of guided tours, creative vignettes, and stunning projections that peel back the hidden past of Seattle’s Harbor Island—from time immemorial to today. Step into the hidden history of Harbor Island. ✨ Invisible Histories is transforming the massive Harbor Island Studios with an immersive, guided tour featuring a diverse collaboration of King County's best creative artists, performers, filmmakers, and musicians.
Uncover the layers of time! ⏳ Invisible Histories presents two nights of guided tours, creative vignettes, and stunning projections that peel back the hidden past of Seattle’s Harbor Island—from time immemorial to today. Step into the hidden history of Harbor Island. ✨ Invisible Histories is transforming the massive Harbor Island Studios with an immersive, guided tour featuring a diverse collaboration of King County's best creative artists, performers, filmmakers, and musicians.
Uncover the layers of time! ⏳ Invisible Histories presents two nights of guided tours, creative vignettes, and stunning projections that peel back the hidden past of Seattle’s Harbor Island—from time immemorial to today. Step into the hidden history of Harbor Island. ✨ Invisible Histories is transforming the massive Harbor Island Studios with an immersive, guided tour featuring a diverse collaboration of King County's best creative artists, performers, filmmakers, and musicians.
Uncover the layers of time! ⏳ Invisible Histories presents two nights of guided tours, creative vignettes, and stunning projections that peel back the hidden past of Seattle’s Harbor Island—from time immemorial to today. Step into the hidden history of Harbor Island. ✨ Invisible Histories is transforming the massive Harbor Island Studios with an immersive, guided tour featuring a diverse collaboration of King County's best creative artists, performers, filmmakers, and musicians.
Thank you to our fiscal sponsor,
Create48 Media Network!
Through our partnership with Create48 we are able to receive donations to help cover the costs of producing this event. Donations can be tax-deductible
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Join Invisible Histories for a spectacular two-night event bringing the hidden past of this iconic location to life!
We’re activating the iconic Harbor Island Studios—inside and out—with incredible art, sound design, live performances, and projections, all created by a diverse team of local artists. Come celebrate the island's journey, from time immemorial to the talent working there today.
Dates: April 23 & 24 | 6–10 PM
Location: Harbor Island Studios
Two Nights in April:
April 23-24, 6–10 p.m. at Harbor Island Studios.
Sponsors
Our Tour Guides
David B. Williams will be a tour guide on Thursday, April 23rd at 6:30 pm. Select his tour here.
David is a Pacific NW author, podcaster and tour guide, who encourages people to slow down and pay attention to the world around them. You can learn more about David's work at his webpage: geologywriter.com
Bee Isabella will be tour guiding on Friday April 24th at 6:30 p.m. Select their tour here.
Jennifer Ott will be a tour guide on Thursday, April 23rd at 7:15 p.m. Select her tour here.
Jennifer is is an environmental historian with a particular interest in Seattle's history of moving dirt, rerouting waterways, and leveling hills.
Elisa Law will be tour guiding on Friday April 24th at 7:15 p.m. Select her tour here.
Elisa is museologist and public historian with deep ties to Seattle.
Guide TBD: Thursday, April 23rd at 8:00 p.m.
Joanna Demarest will be a tour guide on Friday, April 24th at 8:00 p.m.
Joanna specializes in American, Historical, Traditional, Southern Tales, Ghost Stories, Personal Narrative, her original unique Ladybug Stories©, and Storytelling Workshops. Joanna has been telling stories to children and adults for over 30 years.
Guide TBD: Thursday, April 23rd at 8:45 p.m.
Jonathan Demarest will be a tour guide on Friday, April 24th at 8:45 p.m.
Presenters and Performers
Devlin Donnelly is the Creative Services Manager at the Port of Seattle, where he leads design, video production, and photography while moonlighting as the unofficial guardian of the Port’s historical archives. It’s a role that places him squarely at the intersection of storytelling, institutional memory, and knowing exactly where that one photo from 1987 is buried.
When he’s not wrangling creative projects or spelunking through decades of archival material, he can be found photographing escalators, vessels of all sizes, climbing construction cranes, and exploring the overlooked corners of Seattle, both physical and historical.
Rebecca Demarest is an award-winning book designer, author, and technical illustrator living in Seattle, WA with her husband. She loves to teach writing, and writes and reads mainly speculative fiction, with a smattering of literary fiction thrown in as a palette cleanser.
David Norman Lewis is a Seattle-based filmmaker, writer, and author known for his work in independent film and Pacific Northwest folklore. He co-directed and produced the 2023 film Fantasy A Gets a Mattress and wrote the book The Burning of Moses Seattle, and Evergreen Ape: A Cultural History of Bigfoot. His writing has appeared in The Stranger and Seattle Weekly.
BJ Cummings is the author of The River That Made Seattle: a natural and human history of the Duwamish. She founded the Duwamish River Community Coalition in 2001 and currently is a Special Projects Advisor for community-engaged environmental health research at UW.
Cynthia Brothers (she/her) is the founder of Vanishing Seattle, a multimedia movement that documents and celebrates the disappearing landmarks, small businesses, and cultures of Seattle - as well as the ones that are still here. The award-winning Vanishing Seattle film series has screened at Seattle Black Film Festival, Queer Voices: NYC Film Festival, Alaska Airlines in-flight and more.
Cynthia curated the “My City’s Filthy Exhibit at Bumbershoot (2025), the "We Were Here" exhibit at the Here-after/Crocodile (2024– 2025), and the Vanishing Seattle Exhibit at RailSpur (2023). She has been a presenter, collaborator, and producer in numerous creative partnerships and events, including for Town Hall Seattle and MOHAI. She has released two books: “My City’s Filthy” (2025) and “Signs of Vanishing Seattle” (2024), published by Tome Press.
Starlynn Stout of Life Theater Media produces documentary films that preserve personal legacies and amplify voices to merge individual storytelling with community and cinematic elements. Starlynn will be hosting a "memories of Harbor Island" video booth during the event.
HistoryLink is a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing Washington's history in innovative and engaging ways. Our primary project is HistoryLink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington state history.
We also produce HistoryLink.Tours, featuring self-guided tours of 22 neighborhoods and parks around the state, podcasts, and books.
Knute "Mossback" Berger is a prominent Seattle-based historian, journalist, and author known for uncovering "undertold" Pacific Northwest history. As editor-at-large for Crosscut.com and host of the Mossback's Northwest video series on Cascade PBS, he explores regional culture, heritage, and politics.
Pat Dolan, playing the role of Roy Olmstead
Carter Churchfield playing the role of Elise Olmstead
Gabriel Honeycutt, playing the role of Prosper Graniac
Donna Bergman, playing the role of Marjorie Polk Sotero, is delighted to return to the stage after several years focused on commercial and on-camera work. She trained at the University of Washington School of Drama and Freehold Theatre Lab/Studio, where she developed a strong foundation in performance. When she’s not acting, Donna can be found trail running and backpacking across the Pacific Northwest. She is deeply grateful to be part of this production and to share this experience with such a wonderful group of artists.
Elke Hautala, co-producer of Invisible Histories and managing the "back of house" for History Comes Alive at Harbor Island.
Additionally, Elke is a producer, filmmaker, performer and visual anthropologist, with a passion for connecting the public to history. She's also raising two humans to adulthood, and a pet cat.
Cari Simson, co-producer of Invisible Histories and managing the "front of house" for History Comes Alive at Harbor Island.
Additionally, Cari is an environmental consultant and creative mixed media artist, catalyst and producer, bringing big ideas to fruition by assembling diverse teams and partnerships. She's also raising a human to adulthood, and two pet ducks.
Bianca Rowlett
Andy Bookwalter, playing the ghost of Rolf Neslund and Safety Officer
Alice's Malice is a shadow and live projection puppet troupe headed by Alice Irvin. The Malices utilize hand-painted and sculpted puppets to beam cartoon insanity directly into your skull. You can check out more about Alice’s Malices and her puppeteering adventures at alicesmalices.world
Conspiracy of Cartographers:
Projects that unite art, history, science, and humor
Jeffrey Linn is an artist and cartographer. He draws upon the past to create visions of the future. You can learn more about his work here.
Amir Sheikh (he/him) is a transdisciplinary environmental researcher, co-curator, and collaboration builder. He works at the intersections of urban ecology, cultural landscapes, and planning, examining critical questions about our spatial relationships with landscapes to inform a just, equitable, and resilient shared future.
At the end of the tour, you can relax and enjoy the Waterlines Project Lounge, where he co-created and shares a range of multimedia materials that contextualize the intertwined relationships between landscape history and place here in Seattle.
Peter Lynch has been a musician and artist in the Seattle area for 30+ years. He has played in bands (The Melody Unit, Library Science, Branflakes) and created interactive musical art installations (Let’s) as well as scored a few short films.
He’s also a yoga teacher working on Beacon Hill and teaching to people with Parkinson’s disease.
At the end of the tour, you can listen to his soundscape in the Waterlines Project Lounge!
Nancy Sackman & Elizabeth Davis
Duwamish Tribe
Black Heritage Society
Additional performers to be confirmed
Additional performers to be confirmed