On any given day, a slow hum of chatter and clinks of cups fill a local business on Fourth Street in downtown Olympia. Rhythms, an all-ages coffeehouse and live music venue, hosts weekly open-mic night and a full roster of musical guests most evenings. As one of a handful of all-ages venues in the state capital, it strives for an inclusive space for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
However, on the afternoon of July 9, a former employee posted allegations of safety concerns, financial mistreatment, and disrespect of their personal identity against the business on Instagram.
"I feel deceived and used for that relationship being formed and being told that I was their family," Roslyn Winter Echo said, referring to their experience. "I just don't feel like I was treated as family at the end."

Alleged wage theft
Since Rhythms Coffee opened its doors in April 2022, Winter Echo was part of the action. The full-time sound engineer was employed at Rhythms within the first month and took on additional tasks, which included updating the official website, keeping up with the online presence, booking musicians, and hosting open mics.
"I first started to feel wrong in April last year, when [I noticed] the first paycheck was very short for my hours," Winter Echo recalled. "I did talk to them about that, but that conversation didn't go well. And it was like a lot of others to follow."
Winter Echo said that they addressed their concern privately but felt that the owners did not take them seriously. In the following months, they and the owners of Rhythms engaged in many conversations about these concerns until February of this year, when Winter Echo made the decision to leave. From the October to January, Winter Echo said they did not receive their promised wage at all.
"I was told it was going to be here anytime. Those couple of months, it was a huge challenge. I was stressed," Winter Echo said. During that time, they relied on EBT, a state benefit used to purchase food and other essentials.

Concerns for community safety
Despite the personal financial stress, Winter Echo emphasized that their main concern was the safety of the space. "I can put the financial grievances aside, but like, at the end of the day, it is just inexcusable to have safety not being taken care of," they said.
A few musicians, patrons, and employees, Winter Echo among them, expressed concern about the owners' lack of action regarding other patrons exhibiting inappropriate behavior toward minors and young people in the all-ages space.
"I understand that this could all be wrong and that it could be all false by some chance, but I would rather sacrifice losing one customer than potentially this person finding more victims within an all-ages space," Saige Stittsworth, a musician and long-time customer of Rhythms, stated.
Stittsworth led the charge to kick out patrons who made the space less than safe. A particular patron was banned from another all-ages space in Centralia last year, and when that person began to show up to Rhythms again, Stittsworth took action.
"I loved Rhythms so much at this moment, and I wanted to do this to help, and be like, 'We can do this, we can kick people out,'" he said, remembering talking to one owner. "'You guys have the ability to do that as the owners.'" The patron was removed by Stittsworth and the owner, but he and his friends, including Winter Echo, were not convinced that the issue would be taken seriously in the future.
After Winter Echo's social media post, Stittsworth posted a response a day later to support his friend and encourage the original post to be addressed by the owners. He also wanted to clarify that both he and Winter Echo were not calling for a boycott; rather, their goal was to encourage change within a community space they value.
"I hope I have given Kim and David [the owners] the keys to fix these issues that have been there. So now that it's public, there should not be any other option but to fix them. And I really hope that Rhythms can fix them."

Disrespecting identity
During their time at Rhythms, Winter Echo came out as Nonbinary and asked the Rhythms community to refer to them with the correct pronouns. When the owners neglected to honor the request, Winter Echo "felt like the respect for me was dwindling."
Winter Echo's friends noticed the owners not using the correct pronouns in conversations, even when corrected.
"Speaking as a Transgender man, it hurts me to see them use [Winter Echo's] identity as a weapon," Stittsworth said about the treatment.
Winter Echo and Stittsworth recalled a time when one of the owners announced a musician using the wrong pronouns. When she was corrected privately, the owner shrugged off the opportunity to make a correction.
Winter Echo and Stittsworth, along with many of their friends, have yet to return to Rhythms but continue to encourage people to make their own informed decisions.

Queer event cancelation
When Winter Echo posted about their experience, Rhythms Coffee was met with ramifications from the Queer community.
Stonewall Youth, an Olympia-based organization that gives Queer youth tools to make smart decisions through education, was set to host its second Queeraoke event at Rhythms on July 12. On July 10, one day after Winter Echo's post, the organization canceled the event.
Kenn Anderson, the organization's community fundraising and outreach director, wrote a statement asking Rhythms to address the post. "We wanted to take those seriously and [err] on the safer side and make sure that we weren't giving our support or affiliation to a business that didn't align with our values," Anderson stated.
Queeraoke moved to Stonewall Youth's own event space at the last minute. Anderson said the change of venue still brought many youth attendees; however, most donors to similar events are adults. Despite the loss of revenue, Anderson was proud to have stuck with the organization's values.
"It is very important to us that youth are paid fairly for their labor," Anderson said. "Everyone should be paid for their labor, but youth especially tend to be given the short end of the stick on that."
Rhythms Coffee declined to comment for this story.