Javi Berkman is a journalist known for stories with a sense of humor and humanity
Featured in: The Stranger, Bellingham Alive, The Front, and The AS Review
bellingham’s tesoro escondido
When you walk into Mi Rancho, it feels like you’re stepping into a community marketplace where everyone knows each other. In a way, that’s exactly where you are. Make no mistake, the community that shops and eats here is close-knit, and if you go often enough, they’ll remember you, too.
elevator outages trap students
Elevators in the VU have broken down 41 times since 2015, according to University Police logs, more than any other building on campus.
In just over three out of four of those instances, at least one person was trapped inside.
the time for change was yesterday
Hundreds of students gather at President's office to speak about breaking the cycle of systemic racism, violence
opinion: a hat is just a hat, until it’s not
An alert was sent out to all Western students about a MAGA hat being stolen within minutes. Where was that urgency when the N-word was written on a sculpture in a major walkway?
singing in surgery
Kira Iaconetti, 20, has had a lot of performances in her life, but the most nerve-racking wasn’t for an audience at Benaroya Hall or for her fellow community members in Lynden.
Iaconetti’s scariest performance was for an audience of fewer than 10 people — all of them medical professionals there to remove her brain tumor.
intergenerational roots
Jane Wong is someone with deep, widespread roots. They ground her in China in the rows of crops her ancestors planted for generations. They grow deep into the fertile New Jersey soil and dig into the wet earth of the Pacific Northwest.