🎭 The A-List Encore 04/17/26

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival draws in hundreds of thousands of visitors (and dollars) each year, but its spirit hasn’t changed much since the ’80s. As a features reporter in Bellingham, every spring presents the same challenge: How can I think up with a new angle for flowers?

The inspiration for this year’s feature started back in December 2025, when I spoke to Mari Anderson-Densmore of the Skagit County Historical Museum for my piece on the Edison Women’s Club. She told me how another women’s group, the La Conner Civic Improvement Club, hosted the first iteration of today’s festival in a gymnasium.

That anecdote made me wonder what else I didn’t know about bulb farming in Skagit Valley. In my mind, the practice traces back to folks like William Roozen: entrepreneurial Dutch grandpas, who passed trade secrets onto their sons. However, Skagit’s first tulip farmer was a woman.

In 1906, Mary Brown Stewart ordered a cablegram of bulbs straight from Holland (which apparently caused quite a “consternation” at the Mount Vernon bank). By the ’30s, she and her family had become the valley’s most prominent bulb farmers.

The Skagit Land Trust now owns Mary’s original farm, located at the entrance to Samish Island. Its executive director put me in touch with Mary Brown Stewart’s great-grandchildren, who elected to place her property under permanent stewardship. “The old farmers were real conservationists,” said Anne Murphy, Mary's great-granddaughter.

As Whatcom Museum historian Jeff Jewell once told me, local history is “all in the details, all in the minutiae.” Rather than focus solely on the link between early farmers and Instagram-worthy tulip fields, I took an interest in Mary's legacy and how her values shaped subsequent generations.

Her great-granddaughters, Anne and Maggie Murphy, graciously afforded me a detailed look at their family story. In case you missed it, you can read the final piece online at cascadiadaily.com. And for those who haven’t yet made it to this year’s Tulip Festival, my annual guide for locals is updated for 2026.

Sometimes, writing CDN’s Living section means sourcing tulip catalogs circa 1935 from the Skagit County Historical Museum. Yet other times, it means soliciting submissions to a new project: CDN’s first advice column, “Professionally Nosy.” I can’t promise this will be as rigorously researched as our features coverage. I can, however, guarantee conscientiousness, empathy and the occasional dose of humor.

Got a burning question you want answered? Email me at [email protected] with the subject “ADVICE.”

This Saturday, April 18, is April Brews Day, aka the culmination of Bellingham Beer Week. Our new brews and spirits contributor, Kiersten Umbinetti-Hutton, wrote a story for this week’s paper about how the latter organization came to be (and why it’s important to keep around).

Looking ahead at the rest of the month, the Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival returns April 30–May 3 with seven new features and 21 shorts. Right now I’m busy compiling a list of organizers’ can’t-miss screenings; check back next week for more info.

Looking into next month, the Community Boating Center has its grand opening on Saturday, May 2. Celebrations include not just rentals but free Mega Sup rides, boatyard sales and tours, a knot-tying station and even a beer garden with Tam Tam Pizza.

As far as off-the-wall events go, the Procession of the Species (now hosted by Gabriel’s Art Kids) also happens May 2. Participants of all ages are invited to traipse through downtown dressed as their favorite animal (living, extinct, imaginary and otherwise). The following weekend, May 8–10, is the Cascade Juggling Festival, which returns right ahead of the Shoestring Circus (May 29–June 14).

Last but not least, Western Washington University is hosting a behind-the-scenes talk with Dan Erickson this spring. The Olympia native is a Western alum, though you might know him better as the creator and producer of TV drama “Severance.” His Friday, May 15, talk is free to attend, and no pre-registration is required.

Audience engagement editor Alana Marcum loved the 2026 sci-fi film “Project Hail Mary.” It stars Ryan Gosling as a man who wakes up in space with no memory of how he arrived there.

Reporter Annie Todd read “Bog Queen” by Anna North, whom she describes as a “must-read author for me.” The book weaves together stories of two women: one in 50 BCE, and the other in England circa 2018.

Managing editor Audra Anderson is a fan of the TV comedy “Mo,” which she said gives an “intimate glimpse into Islamic-American culture and lives of undocumented immigrants.”

As far as musicals go, managing editor Jaya Flanary watched the Netflix proshot of “Merrily We Roll Along” (yet questions why Jonathan Groff won a Tony for it, but not “Just in Time”). She also recommends “Born to Bowl,” an HBO Max documentary about pro bowlers on tour, as well as their subculture’s “weird antics.”

I personally tore through T Kira Madden’s “Whidbey,” which WCLS Librarian Lisa Gresham coincidentally reviewed for this week’s paper. Gresham described the novel, which explores the aftermath of sexual abuse, as “unflinching in its honesty and empathetic to its characters.”