UPCOMING EVENTS
This year, as a part of Wa Na Wari’s annual Walk the Block festival, ARTE NOIR is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop by amplifying its indelible impact on the arts. We will showcase the works of five local artists (eBellz Arts, Momma Lips Draws, The Fly Blind Guy, M. Curry Designs and Kingspen) whose practices have been influenced by Hip-Hop culture. We’ll have live graffiti painting by Wolfdelux and interactive art activities with Kay the Paint Lady; a breakdance performance and demo from Massive Monkees, jump rope with Double Dutch Divas, and New Orleans-style Twerkshop, all while DJ Yaddy sets the vibe and musical backdrop for the afternoon.
Walk the Block
Saturday, September 30th
2 PM to 6 PM
As an ARTE NOIR supporter, you can buy discounted community partner tickets for just $15 by clicking the button below! To make your community ticket visible you must put in the Promo Code: CommunityTix.
PAST EVENTS
TO SIT A WHILE
Alison Saar’s sculpture, entitled To Sit A While, features the figure of Hansberry surrounded by five bronze chairs, each representing a different aspect of her life and work.
Seattle, you are invited To Sit A While with Lorraine.
Join ARTE NOIR and The Hansberry Project in celebrating the legacy of Lorraine Hansberry as we co-host The Lorraine Hansberry Scholarship Initiative and its traveling sculpture To Sit A While throughout the month of May.
Through June 3rd, come by ARTE NOIR and write with Lorraine. Bring your favorite notebook, sit a while, write and reflect, and if you're willing to share your thoughts, The Hansberry Project will be collecting community writings to compile into a common book.
About To Sit A While: Sponsored by The Lilly's, an organization supporting women playwrights - with a special focus on BIPOC women, sculptor Alison Saar has crafted a piece representing the spirit of Lorraine Hansberry as both a writer and activist. Saar’s work, entitled To Sit A While, features the figure of Hansberry surrounded by five bronze chairs, each representing a different aspect of her life and work. The life-size chairs are an invitation to the public to do just that: to sit with her and think.
The sculpture is touring the country in an effort to raise awareness and funds to support scholarships for BIPOC writers to gain advanced degrees. From The Lilly's website: "A graduate degree is the primary gateway to a professional playwriting career. It firmly places an emerging writer on the short list of new writers most seriously considered by agents and theaters. University scholarships cover only tuition, and most graduate schools are in cities with extraordinarily high costs of living—there are currently no scholarships dedicated to covering graduates’ living expenses. This scholarship will provide three years of protected time for the recipients to write, work with collaborators, and benefit from the guidance and input of mentors that will endure through their careers.
The Lillys aim is to raise a $2,500,000 fund in Hansberry’s name to ensure the next generation of writers can follow in Hansberry’s footsteps, regardless of race, gender, or economic situation."
Please consider giving to the cause and visit the sculpture at ARTE NOIR, now through June 3, 2023.
Click the button below to support the Lorraine Hansberry Scholarship Initiative Fund.
About Lorraine
Lorraine Hansberry was a playwright, journalist and activist. Her play A Raisin in the Sun was the first play by a Black woman produced on Broadway and has been revived on Broadway in 2004 and 2014. Generations of Black theater, television and film artists were inspired by and cut their artistic teeth on her masterpiece.
​
Hansberry also wrote Les Blancs and The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, which was called a “rediscovered classic” by the Chicago Tribune in 2016 and is now playing on a limited run on Broaday and nominated for a Tony Award for "Best Revival of a Play," along with many other accolades.
​
Lorraine Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer at the young age of 34 but accomplished far more than most of us will ever do in a longer lifetime.
GRAND OPENING SOCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
Photos courtesy of The Elite Collective