CONTEXT + CULTURE

Focus on preserving the history of Black descendants of Africans forcibly brought to America continues to grow. While much of this has to do with the growing denial of America’s true history of complicity with other nations in the robbing of Africans and forcing them into bondage and free labor, it is also due to a growing awareness that if not documented, told, and archived, our history will fade away. It is also the spirit of Sankofa that increases our duty to understand ou

Documenta is a contemporary art exhibition that has been held every five years in Kassel, Germany, since 1955. It is a closely-watched art world event that has seen its fair share of highly lauded curators and even some controversy in previous years. Documenta 16, happening June 12 - September 27, 2027, recently appointed esteemed art scholar, historian, and deputy director and chief curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Naomi Beckwith to curate its upcomin

It may surprise some that Egypt has not always been presented in geographical teachings as part of Africa. 

Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, Koyo Kouoh, speaks at AWITA's 'Build Your Art World 2024' at Christie's, London, a symposium aiming to inspire female arts professionals. Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (Press Association via AP Images) Black leadership has increasingly influenced Art platforms around the world. One such example is the appointment of Cameroonian Koyo Kouoh as the Artistic Director of the 2026 edition of the Venice Biennale. Kouoh is

by Guest Writer, Béné Bicaba When most Americans envision voodoo or similar practices, their minds often drift to the enigmatic allure of New Orleans or Haiti. These places are steeped in witchy intrigue and the unfathomable power of the supernatural. Perhaps it's the haunting presence of those who came before us. Or is it the presence held by the trees and earth, whispering stories of the past? My own personal encounters with faith, magic, and the occult were through my moth

In 1936, Edsel Ford used $25,000 to found the Ford Foundation, to be used for all public welfare. After the passing of Edsel and his brother Henry Ford, their bequests made Ford the world’s largest foundation. The list of initiatives seeded and supported by the Ford Foundation is exhaustive and includes The Grand Bargain , a move to resolve the city of Detroit’s bankruptcy in 2014.  Darren Walker , who has served as CEO at Ford since 2013, brokered this $125 million investmen

Have you ever found yourself sitting at a performance unable to take your eyes off a particular dancer? It’s not ideal, of course, particularly when an entire company of dancers is giving you life. But I must confess, whenever Jeroboam Bozeman is on stage, I simply cannot take my eyes off of him.    When Jeroboam danced with Donald Byrd’s Spectrum Dance Theater several years ago, then Seattle Times writer Michael Upchurch penned the perfect words to describe the kind of all

In February of 1885, King Leopold II of Belgium established the Congo Free State. The purpose of this establishment was to seize the African landmass and its enormously rich resources of rubber and ivory, as the personal possession of the King which led to the eradication of about half of the population due to punishment and malnutrition.    In the Congo Free State, King Leopold II, offered anything but freedom, killing and punishing Congolese people for not harvesting enough

Juan Alonso-Rodríguez , one of our founding board members and a prolific Cuban-born artist, was recently featured in Voyage Tampa Magazine , a publication not too far from his new home in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he moved a few years back to escape the gray Pacific Northwest. He lives with his partner and their dog, Roxy. Juan is represented by ArtX Contemporary , and Jorge Mendez Gallery creates his works at the Five Deuces Galleria in St. Petersburg, all while still

By Myah Rose Paden The curtains open on Seattle Opera’s 2024-2025 season with the highly anticipated world premiere of Jubilee  – a celebration of the enduring legacy of African American spirituals, the labor to preserve historical Black art forms, and the conservators responsible for that preservation. Jubilee is an operatic adaptation of the 2019 a capella musical of the same name, created and directed by the original playwright Tazewell Thompson, with vocal arrangements by

Even as a young boy raised by a single mother in Seattle’s south end, Justin Leggett's sense of style was evident. Always one to dress up his cousins in sheets and create a runway in the backyard, Justin was eager to fashion a narrative using clothes instead of words. “Our clothing is like armor. We put on our armor so it speaks for us and tells a story about a part of us that needs no words,” Justin shared.   Although his life was far from rich, Justin never felt poor. He re

In a July sit down with NY Times writer Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Melinda French Gates talked about her growing shift toward trust-based philanthropy, saying, “I do believe that there are many, many partners on the ground who do incredible work but don’t often get funded.” An August 6th Chronicle of Philanthropy article on MacKenzie Scott’s generosity, notes of her giving practices, that two themes run through her grant making; “getting as much money out the door as possible, a

A newly divorced Zola Maie Graves, aka Zoe Dusanne, arrived in Seattle in 1912 at the age of 28 to join her parent's hair salon family business. One year later, Zoe’s mother Letitia Ann Dennie Graves was listed as the first president of the Seattle Chapter of the NAACP, with Zoe by her side as Recording Secretary. Zoe Dusanne, ca. 1950s; Courtesy UW Special Collections (SOC9583) Many have never heard of Zoe Dusanne , though her image is memorialized in the Midtown Square mura

The 2024 Olympics was a source of much joy this year for USA medalists, bringing home 127 medals in total, of which 40 were GOLD! Thanks to Essence Magazine , we have a rundown of the 14 Black women who brought home the gold.   Black women from around the globe shattered Olympic ceilings yet, not all of them received love from their home country. Italian-born Nigerian volleyball player Paola Egonu spurred the Italian women’s first-ever gold medal, but in Rome, where a mural i

After always finding the bad news about arts funding, some good news landed in the good ole inbox. New York Mayor Eric Adams agreed to restore $111 million in funding to museums and libraries last month—hooray!!!   In April of this year, Mayor Adams proposed a City budget of $111.6 billion, restoring some cuts made last year, that severely impacted 3-K and pre-K programs. The budget proposal maintained some cuts to libraries where reduced service hours had already taken effec

“People go to Africa to confirm what they already have in their heads and so they fail to see what is there, in front of them.” Chinua Achebe   Qudus Onikeku is a change-maker. As the founder and artistic director of Afropolis , a Pan-African gathering of creatives and curious people seeking to celebrate the intersection of performance, community, creativity, and innovation, Qudus is the epitome of walking the talk. A Nigerian dancer and performer, Qudus is also a renowned

Seattle’s Public Library annually engages the Seattle Reads  program, encouraging the entire city to read the same book over the summer. It’s a pretty cool program made cooler by some of the selected reads which have included Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing , and Angela Flournoy’s The Turner House , and this year we are all reading, or re-reading Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower , published in 1993. It would be the end of just last week, July 20-21, 2024 that marked the beginning

It was 1932 when young Syvilla Fort enrolled at Cornish College in Seattle, Washington. In our November 2022 editorial, we wrote about her life and the start of a new Cornish scholarship named in her honor. To briefly reiterate, Syvilla was the first person of color (Black) to enroll at Cornish, after having been denied entry to several Seattle ballet programs. Despite the multiple denials, Fort’s training at Cornish led to her becoming the innovator of Afro-modern dance. N

June is Black Music Month and in addition to the sheer joy and excitement we are feeling about the potential release of some 60 incomplete demo recordings by Marvin Gaye (more on that later), we’re pretty jazzed by the vast vinyl collection of one of Africa’s biggest artists, El Anatsui.   The Ghanaian artist best known for his metallic bottle cap tapestries, is also a musician whose musical influences can be found in his artwork. At a recent exhibition at Efie Gallery in Dub

There are a handful of Black male voices that are immediately identifiable. James Earl Jones, whether as Darth Vader or the voice of CNN News, is at the top of that list. But before James Earl Jones’ voice commanded our attention, those of us of a certain age – ahem, remember well the voice of the 7-Up "uncola" man, Geoffrey Holder. Among all of his creative endeavors, including having directed the 1975 Tony-Award-winning Broadway production of The Wiz , Holder’s art came fir