hello my name is tamil into law and i'm going to be attending this seattle ethiopian summer festival obvious showing my new film ethiopia dances for joy ride traveled around  traditional dances the food and many aspects of the culture it's a really wonderful way to introduce ethiopia to people that are not very familiar obvious showing bits of the film talking about my experiences on the seattle ethiopian summer festival buffalo washington so i'll show you a bit of dance from the middle east a few movements first we're going to start with the head of course the head movements also exist in ethiopian dance but in a different way go side to side it can become faster and faster thank you and thank you for tuning it ok and the second i love and thank you for tuning it have been working on in creating within the community for one of the documentary actually six documentaries made this year by a group of young students at omar t i capturing the experiences of the people and the impacts of the us or terrorist redevelopment which will be taking i think over ten years and the use of volved in the program plan on creating six documentaries every single year for three years  showing the journey an experience of ethiopian immigrants within seattle all the way back from when the house of lossie first came to seattle and looking at the growth of the population looking at spread of a culture looking at the development of the ethiopian community and also with european businesses all over the seattle area and we're very proud to say that we've come a very far away we definitely have more ethiopians in seattle than a lot of other places in the united states we now have  council members within washington we now have people that are head of such media organizations like m r ethiopian community has developed a very strong relationship with the city of seattle itself and local government and we're ignore the documentaries about ethiopian culture but also just to have a fun day with other ethiopians listening to music watching dance watching ethiopian fashion shows  documentaries and we encourage you to come once again it's from eleven am to six pm so drop in whenever you feel is convenient to you at the garfield community center here on twenty third in cherry august twenty third thank you very much i was  on the name and no about has a medical decided to run for office because there was a need for a community to be represented for a community to have a voice and so that's when i thought i would seize the opportunity in the moment and see what i can do and so my goal is to get my community the people that i represent to being against and their communities because that's what it takes and that's when people have had voice and so i would like to be if i'm painting this i just want people to see that it's doable if i can do it anybody can do it but what it takes is simple gauge mant and also at huge desire and passion so to say that i may be the first especially the northwest on a city council is a little disheartening because we've been in the community i mean even i have been a c e o for the past thirty years and so for us not to be so  gauged we have to question ourselves and say why is it that we are not involved in civic engagement what is it that we're lacking what is it that we're not doing and i believe one of the things is that we just hear far of the fact that maybe we can do it we feel like it's just not attainable reachable so i want people to use me as an example and say that yes we can do it yes we can represent our communities and far if you think community especially we have a huge voice there is a huge community in the seattle area and so what can we do to mobilize ourselves and to be heard to have our voice out there because we bring a lot of cultural bring a lot of knowledge and rich rich culture to this community and we're here now we're here to stay we're not going anywhere we're having children we're having generation after generation of us here and so what is it that we can do to be involved and engaged not only to benefit us but also to benefit others and so hopefully that's where we're headed i don't plan to go back anymore i plan to continue on and this journey and i don't know where my next trip is going to be where i am headed but i know i am on to something and so as long as the people want me there i'm going to continue to be there but who wants to follow who wants to also do this and by the way you don't have to be my age to do this you can start any age aside encourage anybody who's interested and surfing was interested in being the voice for society for a community and for the people who are who don't have voice or who don't feel heard who would be who would step up to the plate and do it because that's what we need to do y personally you know i'm just going to work on my family and like it doesn't really impact me right and that kind of mentality is detrimental because that results in us be under represented in a lot of areas especially politically and a lot of people also before have said we don't have a voice or we don't have ethiopians you know it's all americans that are running local government we don't have people in the community that are influential we no longer have that excuse and we do now have people that are kind of rising above the ranks and becoming influential have the power to benefit if you open community if that's if that's tapped into so what message do you have for people who are a little reluctant or as of in the past i've not been too involved in the community what's your  ge so i think here is a huge fallacy one of the things that people believe is even with bullying people don't think that the boy scouts or they are the more counts it really does count it does matter and so if are if there is nothing i can do because i don't have time i'm involved in you know with my kids i have three jobs that i can at least vote i can go in on i can understand what's going on and i detest people don't even know what's going on in your community so how can we educate ourselves too to have that and as a parent maybe as a first generation if your peers if i don't have the command of the language of i if i don't read and write that's fine how can i empower how do i see talent when it's out there how do i see it and the young kids learning new your upcoming second generation ethiopia's where do i see that talent how do i encourage because that's where it comes that's that's that's where we're headed and like i said earlier we're here to stay and so i think what we need to do is we know it's like i said if i can do it anybody else can do it so it's doable how do we mobilize ourselves to support and to be  heard and so it's not just about voting it's also about what is it that i want compete will come and talk to me and tell me what it is that they want to see happen because you know what that's where it starts through communication through doubt log so can we have those down and that kind of dialogue for people to really come together and say what they think or say what they need and not in a way you know i'm not encouraging people to complain but not only do we want to talk about what we need but what can we do to address those things because you just don't want to be a  the answers the answers also comes from come from our communities and from the people here so let's let's stop log let's have that some back and forth conversation about the issues one what we need because i know we're not being too because we're not out there and we don't think that we can do anything that we can do some things we should examine and numbers and everything and so yeah and i hope that you guys also step up to the plate and have giving young people giving young east africans tools and training and resources and multimedia to get their voices heard and i think the second step is coming into local government and really being represented so it's really great to have you  hopefully find their passion so right now so i want to encourage you guys you know who are here and doing what you're doing to take it out to the community and also educate others not only in the media but also have these conversations have the logs and just have like conversation cafes or whatever that you need to do to get the word out because there's a lot of kids your age who are not involved in anything at all and so i think now it doesn't it's not only the parents and the adults who can do that it's also you you know and so i would love in the northwest wow that's a really tough question i actually my term on the federal the city council and december twenty fifteen so it's something that i have to examine  and and run for the position and so yes second use a lot of support there's a lot that i need and i know most of the ethiopians are in seattle but i think the support know phone calling whatever and i know like i said a lot of you pissed on them and throw away their live in seattle but it starts somewhere so if i can get the support from people here and i don't know my next journey could be and i really am visualizing this could be going to where then i can serve a broader community not just federal way but then it would be a bigger broader representation so depending on how things go for me that would be my next step so i left the support i can definitely use that and actually look forward to really engaging and participant in getting people to ask me those questions and see where they can support and  and learn more about kind of what you're doing in how they can help you or how you can help them feel free to come to some of our events stay tuned we'll have more information for how we can support this very important because you're the first ethiopian woman city council member this is like a huge landmark for us as an immigrant group and it's something to be really proud of and something to really encourage and appreciate and that's that channels down to the youth that we have anymore that are kind of pursuing ambitious goals as well that are going to places like we have students that come in grew up through our march that are now have internships at microsoft in places like boeing and things like that and so really glad you're here and we hope we are having an event if you open festival one of the first and the biggest on the august twenty third two other fourteen on from eleven am to six pm here at the garfield community center  in the field and inside the green center itself and it's just kind of a place to come and celebrate and showcase ethiopian culture we have dance food art exhibits we have documentaries that we're showing about community issues we have a documentary of