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By CRYSTAL PAUL Seattle Times travel and outdoors reporter A year after Zander McCrae came out as trans, he found himself on an eight-day kayaking trip through the San Juan Islands with a queer youth outdoor-adventure group. Founded by Elyse Rylander, OUT There Adventures (OTA) organizes outdoors activities specifically for LGBTQ+youth and allies. That kayak- ing trip in 2015was OTA’s first orga- nized trip. Since then it’s partnered with other outdoors organizations to create queer-centric programming, fromday trips to longer service-orient- ed expeditions and amountaineering school. The programs have helped numer- See > OTA, E9 THE MIX TRAVEL | OUTDOORS | ARTS | FOOD | BOOKS 2 R REACH THE EDITOR | Stefanie Loh, Features Editor, sloh@seattletimes.com ; Janet Tu, Arts & Entertainment, jtu@seattletimes.com ; Megan Burbank, Travel & Outdoors, mburbank@seattletimes.com ByGEMMA ALEXANDER Special to The Seattle Times O n a recent springmorning, Shawna Percival wheels her double stroller onto the stage of Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony. She takes her girlswithher everywherewhen she’s not at work. Shifting blankets anddiaper bags, Percival removes the babies fromtheir stroller, then takes a seat facing threemusicians on stage, a baby in each arm. Percival will not be playing an instrument. And while several other people are also there to listen, Percival’s opinion is the one thatmatters.When she’s ready, themusicians start to play the beginning strains of a lullaby that Percival wrote for her 2-month-old twins. They are recording the song as part of the Lullaby Project, inwhich parents experiencing homelessness workwithSymphonymusicians and graduate stu- dents fromSeattle PacificUniversity’smusic-therapy programto compose lullabies for their children. It’s the sixth year for this collaboration betweenSeattle Symphony andMary’s Place, KingCounty’s largest emergency shelter provider for families. The songswill be performed by Seattle Symphony musicians at a free public concert at BenaroyaHall on Mother’s Day,May 12. “I thought it would be really cool for themto have their own lullaby, you knowwhat Imean?” says Percival, one of this year’s participants, after the recording session. “It’s a little extra thatmommy can do for them. I like to dowhat I can for them.” Creating lullabies The Lullaby Project began at NewYork’s Carnegie Hall in2011, pairing parentswith professional artists towrite and record personal lullabies for their babies. Seattle Symphony became one of the program’s first national partners in2013. “For us it’s like, howcanwe use the things that we’re good at to help others?” saidAmyHeald, col- laborative learningmanager at Seattle Symphony. “We can go andwe canhelp people express them- See > LULLABY, E8 M I K E S I E G E L / T H E S E A T T L E T I ME S Shawna Percival, with her twins Vivian and Jayden, listens to the lullaby she worked on being performed by Seattle Symphony musicians Brittany Breeden, second violin; Valerie Muzzolini, principal harp; and Katherine Strohmaier, vocals at left with back to camera. M I K E S I E G E L / T H E S E A T T L E T I ME S Shawna Percival lifts her daughter, Vivian, after listening to Seattle Symphony musicians perform the lullaby she wrote. What does a mother’s love sound like? OUTDOORS LGBTQ+ youth find community through a Seattle adventure group C OU R T E S Y O F Z A ND E R MC C R A E OUT There Adventures alum Zander McCrae holds a puppy during a local outdoors trip. E seattletimes.com | MAY 12, 2019 | SUNDAY Tayari Jones On teaching and typewriters > E5 Bellingham Death Cab and ODESZA return > E6 MUSIC | With the help of musicians and graduate students, people experiencing homelessness compose their own songs. Seattle Symphony’s Lullaby Project finds out. Did you miss Moira’s Book Club discussion of Sigrid Nunez’s “The Friend,” about a grieving woman who forms a bond with her late friend’s dog? Read the highlights here: st.news/thefriend MORE ON SEATTLETIMES.COM ByMOIRA MACDONALD Seattle Times arts critic If you look at the schedule for the Seattle International FilmFestival, which begins May 16 and continues through June 9, it seems to contain quite possibly every filmmade this year, everywhere. The 45th annual festival is present- ing 414 films —238 features, 176 shorts — and while that seems like a lot to the casual filmgoer, it’s a tiny frac- tion of the films considered for the fest. Those final 414 were chosen through an elaborate process that began last summer and involved thousands of films, dozens of people (SIFF has 35 people working in some capacity in programming, and an additional 18 who work as prescreeners), and proba- bly not quite enough fresh air. Films chosen for SIFF come to the See > SIFF, E2 How SIFF sifts through thousands of films to create a lineup FILM SIFF stories INSIDE | A guide to navigating SIFF > E2 Films that might make your stomach growl > E3 Lynn Shelton opens the festival with ‘Sword of Trust’ > E3