The Cascadia Underground is a listener, user and supporter funded non-profit program of the Department of Bioregion.
We are an independent media center and bioregion wide media collective located in Capitol Hill in Seattle. Our work empowers citizen journalism, provides a platform and tools for Cascadians and marginalized communities, and create a bioregional hub for information and news.
Running a media center isn’t cheap. We do it because we believe in it’s mission, and are able to do it with substantial donations out of our own pockets, and because of amazing support on our Patreon from people like you.
Your Support Funds
- This WordPress website, including web site hosting, and premium plugins such as front end submissions, Yoast, All-in-One Calendar that enable our community editing and submission features.
- A 1500 sq ft Independent Media Center located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle available for anyone, including Cascadians and programs furthering bioregional principles including video, camera, recording and editing equipment available to use and learn. A much needed community center in a region where real community spaces are rapidly disappearing.
- Diverse and inclusive media collectives made up of Cascadians and community members which represent different groups and/or causes.
- Regularly generated original social media content, infographics and toolkits that put local, regional and national issues into a bioregional perspective and context, and help provide simple steps for people to take action.
- Regularly generated original video, audio and media content undertaken and created by collective members using the space, then shared on the Cascadia platforms and on the program’s web pages.
- Educational and generative classes that happen regularly, have a community-building component as determined by the students, and that provide the tools and infrastructure needed by those telling their personal narratives.
If you support our work – support us on Patreon. We are entirely powered by your donations, and all money goes to providing space, rent, equipment, and classes, all free of charge.
Click here to become a Patreon Member
Commitment of Values:
Our leadership team is proud to represent a wide variety of Cascadian voices. With more than half of our organizing team comprised of people of color, and also including non-gender conforming and LGBTQ+ individuals, we seek to be an active example of its commitment to strengthening diversity within the Cascadia movement.
The Cascadia Underground is a region wide collective of groups and content creators, as well as network of independent media centers.
In the Tradition of Indymedia and Independent Media Center (IMC’S)
The first ever Independent Media Center was created in Seattle to help document the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests that shook the world from November 30-December 3rd 1999, before spawning a global network of independent citizen journalists, groups, organizations and media centers that lasted more than a decade before slowly faltering out in the late 2000’s.
We are working to reignite the spirit of Independent Media Center and Journalism Networks that were active in the late 1990’s and 2000’s. We provide media spaces for independent citizen journalism, with computers and equipment for digital recording, editing and publishing, and work to pair that with working professionals and interns who can guide an open and non-commercial media collective of programs and content creators.
We are a collective of programs working to report and provide a platform for reports from the struggles for a world based on freedom, cooperation, justice and solidarity, indigenous sovereignty and against environmental degradation, exploitation, and racism. The reports cover a wide range of issues and social movements – from neighborhood campaigns to grassroots mobilizations, from critical analysis to direct action. We also work to provide original content and provide space for organizations engaged in these actions, to magnify their impact and voices, that they may otherwise not be able to do.
The content of the website is created through a system of open publishing: anyone can upload a written, audio and video report or a picture directly to the site through an openly accessible web interface. Through this system of ‘Direct Media’, the Cascadia Underground erodes the dividing line between reporters and reported, between active producers and passive audience: people are enabled to speak for themselves. At bigger actions, Cascadia Underground volunteers extend this participatory model by establishing ‘Public Access Terminals’ on the streets, and facilitating direct access to the technical equipment that enables participants to upload to the website, as well as public reporting teams able to quickly respond and report fast acting news.
The Cascadia Underground is working to establish a bioregional network of independent media centers, members and workers throughout the Pacific Northwest. We hope you join us!