SPOKANE, Wash. — The open mic Wednesday night tradition is well known in the local music scene and to regulars at the Checkboard on East Sprague.
Woven into the stacked fabric of talent, one singer sways through every song. She feels every beat.
“Just an adventurous lover of life,” Tabitha Smith said. “I’m blind, sure, yeah. I have a disability. We can get that out of the way.”
Smith moved to Spokane three years ago on a whim. She’d visited before with a friend and was ready to start a life of her own. She was ready for a fresh start.
“Elementary school was awful. I go out on the playground, and people run away from me,” Smith said. “[My mom] had to say kids think you’re weird… It does not matter what they think. It matters what you think, and the right people aren’t gonna care.”
The right people are right here — Spokane’s local music scene.
“I couldn’t imagine this community without her, so I am glad she feels that way, because we all see her as a pillar of our community,” musician Jonathan Turnick said. “Lots of really friendly, wonderful people make me feel lucky to be here.”
Tabitha credits her knack for singing to her father who was a drummer, although she’s never met him. She performs gigs around town but holds tight to her weekly staple at the Checkerboard.
“She’s very, very good,” musician Michael Impink said. “There’s, like, something in the vibrations, you know?”
Much of Shith’s life, it felt like she was swaying on the one and the three. But after a blind faith move to Lillac City, she can’t see herself anywhere else.
“So much gratitude,” Smith said. “I love this community so much. I do.”
