THE COLLECTIVE

ACES returns in April! The Artists of Color Expo & Symposium (ACES) is a BIPOC-led, community-curated program featuring art exhibits , live performances , presentations , workshops , film screenings , artist talks , and artist opportunity tables . The event offers space to come together with intentionality to value each other's work and see one another as resources while focusing on the challenges and solutions artists of color face in the Pacific Northwest. The 2022 line-up

Unprecedented for her time, in the late 1800s, Edmonia Lewis was the first sculptor of African American and Native American descent to achieve recognition both at home and abroad. Born to a Haitian father and Chippewa mother, Edmonia was orphaned at a young age and spent her childhood living with her mother's tribe. In her early twenties, she made her way to Massachusetts and came to meet the renowned sculptor Edward Brackett, with whom she eventually began studying sculptur

The son of Ghanaian immigrants, Virgil Abloh was a trailblazing artist, architect, engineer, designer, DJ, husband, and father, as well as Louis Vuitton Men's Artistic Director, up until his untimely passing at the age of 41 in November 2021. He continued to work even while privately battling an aggressive form of cancer, including taking on a project to design Nike Air Force 1s for Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer 2022 collection. The design was also in celebration of the icon

This month's shout-out goes to Seattle multi-disciplinary artist, barry johnson , whose work adorns the outside of our soon-to-be physical space at Midtown Square . "Pretty Boy Barry," his latest solo exhibit, features large-scale canvases made up of brightly painted self-portraits and a ground installation of vibrant rose petals. The installation creates a bed on which to cradle a selection of personal effects, which also serve as compositional accents in the portraits hung

In these recent years, it seems as though we are hardly done with our tributes to a new ancestor before we must start anew to remember and honor another. Sidney Poitier ( February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022 ) The recent passing of Sidney Poitier marked the end of an era that stood as a standard for Black dignity in entertainment. Poitier refused to play the kind of roles that had sustained the livelihoods of some before him – the Steppin Fetchit, “ Yass sir boss” kind of ch

We are shouting it out to two fantastic art happenings this month! First, we want to lift up the phenomenal local playwright, Cheryl West , who happens to be the most produced modern playwright at the Seattle Repertory Theatre! West's latest production, Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer, c o-commissioned by Seattle Rep and Chicago’s Goodman Theatre (for the 2019 New Stages Festival), is finally getting its Seattle stage premiere. The one-woman show is being perf

Our friends at Wa Na Wari create space for Black joy EVERY DAY. Their organization is the embodiment of "Black ownership, possibility, and belonging through art, historic preservation, and connection" via the Central District home out of which they operate here in Seattle. So of course, we HAD to give them a Shout-out for all they do as we focus on joy this month! Back in October, Wa Na Wari held space for community joy with their inaugural Walk the Block fundraiser, gatheri

Farewell Letter to a Juju Genius, Greg Tate by Paul r. Harding Even if it is dark all over the world there is light somewhere. Until beginning of this past December I always believed that there is no such thing as nowhere. No such thing as silence. But this world has been so much quieter despite the screaming tornadoes, voting and women’s rights, since a brilliant heart of a writer/musician left us. So much quieter since you have left. Gone. Where(?)- into the sound of light

Washington State’s first Black-owned brewery, Métier Brewing, is taking another major leap with the opening of a new space near T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners. Steelheads Alley, a boutique brewpub, is set to open next summer and will pay tribute to the Seattle Steelheads, a team that played a single season in the West Coast Baseball Association of the Negro League in 1946. Métier CEO and co-founder Rodney Hines established the brewery in 2018 with a mission roo

This November 11th would have been the 93rd birthday of Seattle’s beloved jazz vocalist Ernestine Anderson. In the time since her passing, streets have been renamed in her honor, housing complexes carry her name, and Earshot Jazz has honored her life’s work. As important as it is to celebrate up and coming artists, it is equally important to remember those upon whose shoulders we all stand. Ernestine Anderson was a giant and a beloved member of Seattle’s community. She honor

Chef Kristi Brown and her team at Communion Restaurant & Bar continue to receive high praise for their welcoming and warm restaurant.

Racial identity has recently resurfaced in discussion, literature, and film. Two popular works explore the concept of “passing;” one in a contemporary setting, and one that first emerged in the 1920s. New York Times bestselling author Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half was selected as the 2021 Seattle Reads choice. This citywide book group, offered by the Seattle Public Library Foundation, is an opportunity for people to read and discuss the same book. Bennett’s novel is cent

On November 30th, Josephine Baker, the former actress, dancer, singer, and passionate member of the civil rights movement, will become the first Black woman to be interred at the Panthéon in Paris, France. Born in 1906 in Missouri, Baker moved to France in the mid-1920s after experiencing traumatic racial events in her childhood and personal discrimination at the start of her career. “I just couldn’t stand America, and I was one of the first colored Americans to move to Pari

Barbara Earl Thomas has been a leader in the arts community for a very long time. In addition to being a lauded award-winning artist, she is an accomplished writer, lecturer, arts administrator, public artist, and her work is among the celebrated collections found at Microsoft, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, 21 Century Museum Hotels, Western Washington State University, and Evergreen State College, to name just a few. Soon, her wor

As a young person, Val Thomas-Matson loved Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood . She recalls a particular episode in which Fred Rogers shared a message to his viewers that "we were all special [and that] we were all really unique" left her weeping as she felt that unconditional love seeping through her television. Beloved children's shows that made her feel seen, like Mr. Rogers and Shari Lewis’ Lamb Chop's Play-Along, stuck with Val as she began her career in broadcast communications

“Once I found myself on the other side of the ocean, I could see where I came from very clear…You can never escape that. I am the grandson of a slave, and I am a writer. I must deal with both.” - James Baldwin Thanks to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, their Chez Baldwin virtual exhibit allows a deeper glimpse into James Baldwin, the person. The exhibit is an exploration of Baldwin’s life and works through the lens of his house in St

As the first African American photographer on the staff of LIFE magazine, Gordon Parks placed himself in the American lexicon through his deeply human images of racial segregation and Black life in the US. A new documentary, A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks, which recently screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, proposes that “with his photography and filmmaking, Parks was able to create images of the Black community that allowed for them to be seen on their ter

Barely a year into the life of the Northwest African American Museum, in 2011, Seattle-born textile artist Xenobia Bailey’s creations breathed an air of funky vibrancy into the walls and halls of the museum. That exhibit, The Aesthetic of Funk , was just a peek into the vivid world that Xenobia creates. Her Funktional Vibrations glass mosaic in the #7 Hudson Yards station, located at 34th & 11th in Manhattan, is definitely worth experiencing for even the most subway-averse

In a recent conversation about Black giving, I was reminded that years ago I learned that voluntarism is the nation’s greatest natural resource. Without volunteers, so many things would come to a screeching halt! The consistent display of art from Black artists in the Pa cific Northwest region would be limited at best, and completely absent at worst, if not for the efforts of a group of volunteers who operate the Onyx Fine Arts Collective and Gallery . Stepping into spaces fi

If the elders leave you a legacy of dignified language, you do not abandon it and speak childish language. ~ Ghanaian Proverb When a community loses a keeper of our culture, we lose a piece of our root and our foundation is shaken. There is solace in knowing that these souls are now ancestors but the loss of their physical presence wounds our spirit. We must remember the dignified language they taught us and give honor and appreciation for the lives they shared on this earthl