A VISUAL EXPLORATION OF BLACK POWER IN THE CENTRAL DISTRICT
- Beverly Aarons
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
By Beverly Aarons
On view at ARTE NOIR Gallery through August 2, 2026, Central District Legacy: Black. Power. Black Panthers. invites viewers into a paradigm-shifting visual topography of Black power, authority, and self-determination. Featuring works by nine visual artists and reflections from current and former Central District residents, the exhibition remembers and honors the impact of the Black Panther Party while asking what it means to continue that legacy.
When examined as a whole, the exhibition’s visual narrative suggests that the legacy of the Black Panther Party is not simply power as belief, force, or external control, but power as the authority to define the self first—and from that definition, to take decisive action to reorient reality.
In the artworks Panther Legacy (Charles Conner), The First Panther (Ed-Lamarr Petion), and Unbreakable Threads (Tafy LaPlanche), several motifs reinforce the exhibition’s vision of Black power: a lone, forward-facing figure, a controlled or neutral expression, and a gaze directed either at the viewer or at something just beyond them. This is a meaningful reorganization of the Black gaze within a historical context in which looking directly at white people could be punished as insolence, threat, or refusal of one’s assigned place. When that gaze involved a Black man looking at a white woman, it could be labeled “reckless eyeballing” and used to justify arrest, imprisonment, or lynching. In the artwork Panther Legacy, an anthropomorphized black panther sits behind the wheel of a Seattle police car, his gaze directed upward and the words “Hey Chief, I heard you’re looking for black policemen” and the date “1968” inscribed above the hood. The image directly challenges the racial hierarchy of that era by reclaiming Black authority to define order, enforce accountability, and protect the community from violators. The First Panther moves this authority out of the sphere of white society and into a world completely defined by the Black Panther Party. Huey P. Newton is composed as a lone figure seated on what might be described as a raffia throne, holding a long gun in one hand and a spear in the other. The visual vocabulary of martial power connects his authority to the past through the spear and to power being seized in the present through the long gun. But Unbreakable Threads explores authority not as martial action but as the power to shape self-expression as a reflection of self-respect, protection, and collective power. A central figure, framed in portraiture against a light background, stares directly at the viewer, his clothing meticulous but personalized—a white floral-like design on a blue shirt, a red bow tie, and red suspenders suggest a willingness to defy demands of self-erasure through conformity. “This piece is about how we protect ourselves—and how we show up in the world,” said artist Tafy LaPlanche. “Clothing becomes armor here, something we put on to survive, to stand tall, or sometimes to hide while we gather strength. Every layer carries intention: pride, resilience, and the quiet confidence of knowing who you are.”
In Peek-a-boo #7 and Peek-a-boo #11 (Serron Green), the artworks apply the idea of power directly to the question of perception: who is seen, who remains hidden, and who controls the act of looking. In both works, a dark figure is set against a dark background; the whites of their eyes contrast sharply, while their torsos are fashioned from black-and-white protest imagery from the 1960s. The imagery serves as both covering and construction, forming the figure while also shielding them. The subject is not fully available to be seen by the viewer, yet they are not powerless or invisible. They peer out from behind a history of resistance that protects and teaches them how to trust their own perception of reality.
Your Silence Will Not Protect You (Tasanee Durrett), “depicts a Black woman defiantly casting off the confining mask society imposes” and extends one of the exhibition’s strongest thematic threads: self-definition. The artwork features a line-drawn figure in profile against a brown block of color. Her prominent features evoke West or Central African visual traditions, while her body is mostly a spinal cord dangling from the base of her head. The mask sits apart from her face on a red block of color. Removed from the body, it no longer conceals her. Instead, it becomes evidence of what she has rejected: the imposed self she was never meant to mistake for her own. While Your Silence Will Not Protect You visually depicts the rejection of a false and imposed identity, Evolution (Crystal Nior) acknowledges the journey required to claim authority over the self. The triptych features a Black Power fist emerging from the open crown of three Black male figures. Each painting depicts a stage in the transformation of consciousness: the bound mind, the nurtured mind, and the freed mind. Set against the Pan-African colors of red, black, and green, the work connects individual transformation to collective power rooted in shared ancestry. African Queens (Thaddeus Hunnicutt) and Africa Riches (Achille “A.J.” Barbel) expand that ancestral frame, defining ancestry not merely as genetic inheritance but as cultural lineage, sovereign power, beauty, and material wealth. Both works centralize female figures in silhouette while interweaving dense visual stories of what came before: leadership, natural resources, creativity, cultural symbolism, and collective knowledge carried across generations by a people who endured sustained pressure and still created abundance. These works say: Remember who you are.
But remembrance alone is not the endpoint of the exhibition. The legacy of the Black Panther Party is ultimately about action. As Central District resident Lillian Rambus reflects, “Power in the Central District is rooted in unrelenting advocacy. From the Black Panthers’ breakfast programs to landmark community-led development, it is the legacy of turning grassroots mobilization into lasting institutions that demand equity and celebrate local brilliance.”
The Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children Program remains one of its most enduring legacies. Between 1969 and 1977, the Seattle Black Panther Party served more than 300,000 meals to local youth, demonstrating the power of organized community care at a massive scale. First Serving (Toni Toney) humanizes this history by depicting a single Black child seated before a plate of abundant, wholesome food.
First Serving pulls the exhibition’s larger argument into focus. Black Power is not only the raised fist, the watchful gaze, the weapon, the throne, the mask removed, or the ancestral memory reclaimed—although it is all of those things. It is also the plate placed before a child. It is the decision to turn self-definition into structure, conviction into care, and community need into organized action. Central District Legacy: Black. Power. Black Panthers. does not ask viewers to remember the Black Panther Party as a fixed historical symbol. It asks them to imagine what becomes possible when Black people trust their own perception of reality, remember the depth of their inheritance, and act with enough discipline and love to change the conditions of life around them.
On view at ARTE NOIR Gallery through August 2, 2026, Central District Legacy: Black. Power. Black Panthers. features the artworks of Achille “A.J.” Barbel, Charles Conner, Tasanee Durrett, Serron Green, Thaddeus Hunnicutt, Tafy LaPlanche, Crystal Noir, Ed-Lamarr Petion, and Toni Toney.
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