THE POWER OF YES!

By Vivian Phillips

Just over twenty years ago, Valerie Curtis-Newton and I decided to say yes to developing a Black theatre lab named The Hansberry Project.

That timing feels particularly prescient as Seattle is being treated to an in-depth exhibit sharing the history of Black Arts/West, an experimental endeavor that brought the voices of Black playwrights and artists to Seattle audiences for 11 years. Douglas Q. Barnett and Buddy Butler took a leap of faith and said yes to creating Black Arts/West, a program launched by the Central Area Motivation Program, now known as Byrd Barr Place. They said yes to developing a creative outlet for the expression of theatre, dance, and art.

During the first five years of The Hansberry Project, Val and I often mused about the contrast between being asked to share our creation and the lack of resources that accompanied those requests. Saying yes could be complicated. It could be frustrating. But more often than not, it offered a valuable lesson about what was possible when we were willing to step into the unknown.

Valerie Curtis-Newton accepting her Spirit of Collaboration Award at our 4th Anniversary Celebration. Image credit Elite Collective.

Fast forward to 2020, when the prospect of creating a Black art space in the heart of Seattle's Central District was proposed.

The inclination to reserve my energy and rest on the laurels of having served Seattle's arts community in a number of capacities for decades pressed hard in my psyche. I had every reason to pause.

But I remembered the power of saying yes.

More often than not, saying yes had opened possibilities I had not previously considered. So rather than asking whether I should do it, my attention turned quickly toward the how of making it happen.

On September 19, 2026, ARTE NOIR celebrated four years on the corner of 23rd & Union. Two years of planning, building, and creating preceded our opening on September 17, 2022.

Four years of saying yes and operating in the spirit of collaboration because for us, yes means we.

There are so many examples of the power of yes in the arts.

Like Douglas Barnett and Buddy Butler, who said yes to creating Black Arts/West.

Like Valerie Curtis-Newton, whose vision for sustaining and invigorating the Black theatrical canon continues to seed new work, encourage new playwrights, and, in ways both direct and indirect, carry a lineage forward from Black Arts/West.

Like Paul Williams, Jr., brother of Ntozake Shange, who said yes to extending the national celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Broadway premiere of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf to include a visual art exhibition at ARTE NOIR.

Ammie Felder-Williams and Paul Williams Jr. at the exhibit opening for Colored Girls for Colored Girls - Evolution of Expression. Image credit Hilary Northcraft.

Like the women honored by ARTE NOIR this year — Kristi Brown, Valerie Curtis-Newton, Donna Moodie, and Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates — who have said yes to endeavor after endeavor that benefits the greater community.

And like the growing community of ARTE NOIR supporters, patrons, collaborators, and partners who have said yes with their embrace, encouragement, resources, creativity, and belief in what we are building.

The power of yes is not simply in the word itself.

It is in what happens next.

Yes creates room for an idea to become an experiment, an experiment to become an institution, and an institution to become part of a community's cultural memory.

Yes requires us to move before we know exactly where we are going.

Yes asks us to trust that something worth doing can emerge from the doing of it.

And sometimes, yes is an invitation — offered by someone who sees possibility in you before you fully see it in yourself.

I have learned that saying yes does not mean saying yes to everything. It means recognizing those moments when an opportunity aligns with the work you are called to do, and having the courage to step forward.

ARTE NOIR exists because people said yes.

People said yes to the idea that Black art deserved a permanent home in the Historic Central District. That Black artists deserved to be seen, supported, documented, celebrated, and connected to one another. That our stories belong in the cultural record. That a community could gather around art and find something there that might not have existed anywhere else.

Four years later, we are still saying yes.

We will keep saying yes to honor the history and efforts of those who came before us, to make room for those creating alongside us, and to open our arms wide to those who will follow.

Because sometimes the most consequential thing we can do is simply say yes — and then get to work.

Vivian Phillips, Founder, ARTE NOIR