RASP History

The Redmond Association of Spokenword (RASP) was founded in January 1997 by Cora Goss-Grubbs to promote written and spoken arts—poetry, fiction, drama, nonfiction, and more—in Redmond and East King County through inclusive performance events and educational programming. In September of 1999, Cora, Rebecca Meredith, and John Ringler completed the paperwork for RASP to become a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. RASP met for years at Victor’s Celtic Coffee, then was without a home for a while. It was hard to find a Redmond venue, so RASP met for more than a year in nearby Woodinville (despite “Redmond” being in the group’s name)—this might be called RASP’s wilderness years. RASP then moved back to downtown Redmond at the historic Stone House Café in March of 2007. When the Stone House Café closed, the group almost ran out of steam, but a reformation meeting in 2008 kept the community going once again. RASP moved to Tully’s Coffee at Redmond’s Bella Botega shopping center, and the board was excited to rejuvenate RASP with Michael Dylan Welch as reading series curator and others helping with improved publicity and Michael Heavener working on a new website. In January of 2009, RASP moved to the Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center, with support from the City of Redmond, where it met until the end of 2015. At that time, the schoolhouse was closed as a community center, because the school district wanted to reopen the facility as a school again. Somewhere around this time, RASP met at the Redmond United Methodist Church for about a year. On January 29, 2016, RASP was able to move to VALA Art Center in the Redmond Town Center (VALA moved its Town Center location four times, and RASP went along for the ride). After a few years, when VALA lost its lease, RASP met for a few readings at Brick and Mortar Books in the same shopping center, and then found a home at the Redmond Heights Senior Living Center.  In February of 2019, RASP then moved to its current meeting location at Centro Cultural Mexicano in downtown Redmond. RASP has been grateful for its continuing partnership with Centro and for the free use of Centro’s gallery space for monthly readings and other occasional events.

This page seeks to tell more of RASP’s colorful story, especially its earliest years, and will be expanded with additional essays as they become available.

Our Stories

• “RASP Ten-Year Celebration” by Cora Goss-Grubbs (March 17, 2007)

• “Building a Suburban Poetry Community” by Michael Dylan Welch (2011)

• Launch Reading Photos for the RASP anthology, Here, There, and Everywhere (August 23, 2013)

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