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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 earthly plane. On May 6th, Nashira Priester took her wings. Nashira was a divine presence in the Seattle community. She was an activist and lover of all things arts. Over the history of Seattle’s Black Film Festival, (formerly the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival), Nashira was a constant and welcoming presence. According to her husband, musician Julian Priester, Nashira was passionate about Black history, Black heritage and justice. “Nashira was a force, as everyone who knew her knows,” stated Priester. And we agree. We are grateful for the contributions to community and the arts made by Nashira, and give gratitude for all that she provided to our culture. We will miss her smile and her warm presence. We wish her peaceful eternal rest. You can read more about Nashira and support her family here. Lois and Thaddeus Spratlen were both quiet and boisterous in their commitment to the community. Lois transitioned in 2013, and we recently lost Thaddeus on May 18th. He was 90 years old. Mr. Spratlen ushered generations in our community to a higher standard of being. Always dignified, never stuffy, his presence and his ever-present kufi lent an air of cultural memory. He seemed to be from the past, perhaps a ruler of some ancient African kingdom in our midst. As Professor Emeritus of Marketing at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, the UW remembrance describes Spratlen as, “a genuine giant, a trailblazing Black business educator, a potent and prolific researcher of prescient societal challenges, an innovative textbook author, a mentor, and role model for generations of students, a formidable advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, and the inspiration behind a center that has accelerated the growth of small businesses owned by underrepresented minorities and in underserved communities across Washington and the United States.” We thank you Professor Spratlen for your dedicated life and legacy! Read more about Professor Spratlen here. To commemorate Nashira and Thaddeus and their limitless contributions to community, by permission of the poet Lisa Brown Ross, we offer this excerpt from her poem, “My Community,” from her book of poetry Sapphires and Satin: Beauty of Black Soul. Her latest book, Life is about the Dance: Poems and Inspiration, is available on Amazon. My community sparkles like sunbeams dancing on water. Exploring seascapes of sapphire blue set against a black satin canvas nothing is as soft and inviting. My community is a kaleidoscope multi-layered hues of Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden. King Solomon’s mines reside here diamonds ubiquitously cut with precision from coal withstanding excruciating fire. My community houses the original griots… Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston walked through these doors soul survivors of uncivilized ravages. My community, hums… a spicy gumbo, rich and tasty to the palette it bows to greet me like a million tulips in spring’s breeze. smiling on me always.

President Jimmy Carter declared Black Music Appreciation Month on June 7, 1979. In 2009, President Barack Obama gave June its current designation as African American Music Appreciation Month. In his 2016 proclamation, President Obama noted that “a vital part of our Nation's proud heritage, African American music exemplifies the creative spirit at the heart of American identity and is among the most innovative and powerful art the world has ever known.” The creative spirit that exudes through the notes and choruses of Black music has served to mark the many moods of our Black community. From field songs that form the foundation of Negro Spirituals to the protest lyrics of Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, “We’re Moving on Up,” and including the still prescient commentary in Marvin Gaye’s seminal work, “What’s Going On,” Black music is definitely at the heart of American identity. But when we consider Black music appreciation, we must appreciate the origins and contributions made by innovators who shaped not just Black music, but all music. Beyond the smooth grooves of Jill Scott is a history that is typically overlooked. The names Scott Joplin, WC Handy, and Jelly Roll Morton tell a story of innovation. One need not be an ethnomusicologist to know that Scott Joplin was dubbed the King of Ragtime and popularized this music based on jagged/ragged rhythms, including the habanera that was imported from Cuba. This is the innovative nature of Black music that serves to connect us to ideas, emotions, and African culture. Remember "Mama Say Mama Sa Mama Coosa" from Michael Jackson’s "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'?" Coosa, or makoosa, is a Cameroonian word for dance in the Duala language. Manu Dibango’s 1972 release Soul Makoosa made us dance, and the enduring rhythms of Fela Kuti connect directly to jams from James Brown, D’Angelo, and Ice Cube. The lineage is long! We know a lot about the ways in which white producers and performers took Black music and denied originators credit for their work. This Black Music Month, let’s shift the gaze by learning more about our music history and how our musical evolution served to evolve American music! Much of what is currently written about Black music focuses on contemporary music, especially rap. For deeper grounding in the history of our music, check out this piece via The Conversation. For an even deeper dive, these books, if still in circulation, or on your grandmother’s bookshelf, are highly recommended: Black Music and Blues People by Leroi Jones (aka Amiri Baraka) Urban Blues by Charles Keil Bourbon Street Black by Jack V. Buerkle and Danny Barker - Vivian Phillips - Founder // Editor-in-Chief

For Black Music Month 2021, the light shines on Somi upon the imminent release of her latest album Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba, which honors the South African singer/activist Miriam Makeba. The album features special guests Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Angelique Kidjo, Gregory Porter, Thandiswa Mazwai, Seun Kuti, Nduduzo Makhathini, and Msaki. If you’ve ever experienced Somi, you’ve been touched by the voice of divinity. Her major label debut album, Lagos Music Salon, transports to the intimate salon gatherings and street life of the bustling city of Lagos. In person, her performances entrance and offer ample helpings of sumptuous and elegant interpretations of the life Somi experiences and observes. In Seattle, you may have seen Somi at one of her performances during Earshot Jazz Festival, or at Langston Hughes, or even at Lucid Lounge. One of my greatest joys is watching the careers of Black women artists soar. In Somi's case, I've also watched her put in the work - touring, writing, recording, being a citizen of the world and sharing her gifts widely. Born to Ugandan and Rwandan immigrants, her music reflects the breadth and depth of her world connection. This year, Somi was nominated for a Grammy® for her 2020 release Holy Room – Live at Alte Oper with Frankfurt Radio Big Band. She holds the distinction of being the first African woman to be nominated in any jazz category. She also won the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Vocal Album. Thank you Somi for giving us your offerings in tribute to Miriam Makes and congratulations on the much deserved notice you are now receiving! You can find Somi's music on all of your favorite streaming sources!

In April, shortly after having marked one full year of life and lockdown in a global pandemic that caused a heartbreaking quagmire of loss in BIPOC communities, The New York Times posted a photographic essay entitled, "Four Studies in Black Healing." Shot by photographers Gioncarlo Valentine and Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., the two men traveled to various states across the South to document the routines Black Americans adopted in order to weather their emotions over the course of this past year. The result is a stirring, visually stunning meditation on Ritual, Relationships, Space, and Care. The artistic choice to combine images and words provides a deep sense of compassion and humanity for not only the subjects of the piece, but for the artists themselves. If you did not catch the photo essay earlier this year, we invite you to view it here. If you did read the piece back in April, you won’t be disappointed to revisit it. Each time I take in “Four Studies in Black Healing,” I am moved by a new element of its thoughtful documentation. Artwork like this is truly a gift.

Nigerian-born Okwui Enwezor originally received his bachelor’s degree in political science, first studying in Nigeria before moving to the United States in 1982, and completing his degree at what is now New Jersey City University. After graduation, he wanted to be closer to the social scene, relocating from the Bronx to Manhattan, where he performed poetry at cafes, attended gallery openings, and danced at many of the hottest clubs. However, he recalled not feeling particularly impressed by what was happening in the art world, especially noticing that African artists had almost no exposure. In 1994, he decided to create Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art with scholar Salah M. Hassan, artist Chika Okeke-Agulu, and scholar and artist Olu Oguibe. Still a highly regarded magazine of contemporary African art, NKA opened new doors for Mr. Enwezor. He began receiving invitations to curate art exhibits, making him an art-world fixture, as well as opportunities to work as an arts educator, which he did up until his death from cancer in 2015. From curating the 2002 edition of Documenta 11 in Kassel, Germany, to the “Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life” at International Center of Photography, New York (2014), and the Venice Biennale, Italy (2015), Mr. Enwezor remained a champion not only for African artists but for artists based in Asia and Latin America, ultimately succeeding in making the discipline a more inclusive one for generations to come. ArtNews documents his 10 most important shows here.

Arté Noir has been a vision that has lived rent-free in my head for more than twenty years. It started as something completely different than what is here on these pages, but it was borne from a deep, deep desire to share the beauty, wonder, and magnificence of Black art that I’ve been so fortunate to have enhanced my life. Arté Noir is my way of paying homage to the multitude of art and cultural makers; the dancers, choreographers, drummers, writers, directors, actors, playwrights, visual artists, graphic artists, singers, musicians, cultural trendsetters, culinary greats, decorating experts, filmmakers, producers and technical professionals whose labor has made my life have meaning. I want to honor them - the ones I know, and I want to invite you to explore them all - the ones we will meet together. The whole purpose is to share! Perhaps you will find something new, be reminded of something you already knew, or be compelled to find your own artistic spotlight. Arté Noir is here to illuminate art, artists, and culture from the African Diaspora. This inaugural letter is dedicated to two Mitchells, Kabby Mitchell, III, and Arthur Mitchell, both dancers, and choreographers. Kabby was the first African American to become a principal dancer with the coveted Pacific Northwest Ballet, where he was in the company from 1979 - 1984. Kabby was a dear friend and collaborator. He was much loved in his adopted home of Seattle and throughout the Seattle area. His legacy lives on through the Tacoma Urban Performing Arts Center. Kabby became an ancestor at the age of 60, on May 4, 2017. Whenever I was fortunate enough to visit the Dance Theatre of Harlem location on W 154th in New York City, I was always met with a “how’s Kabby?” as soon as I walked in the door. There was this symbiotic relationship between Seattle and the Dance Theatre of Harlem, and each time Mr. Mitchell (Arthur, b. 1934 - d. 2018) would visit, I was always welcomed to join the party, which was most likely a raucous dinner with the two Mitchells. Mr. Mitchell was a charm to be around. He would let off quips that always made you think. The last time we all dined together, I brought up my disappointment with how little shine Black artists get for their enormous contributions to American culture. Arthur listened, and responded, “Don’t hate, elevate.” It’s taken longer than anticipated, but this is my elevation. Welcome to Arté Noir. I’m glad to have you on this exploration of Black art! ​ - Vivian Phillips - Founder // Editor-in-Chief

Dr. Quinton Morris is an inspiration. Barely into his 40’s, one would wonder what more there is for someone who has achieved as much as Quinton has? Morris would probably answer, “wherever there is a need, there is more to do!” His story is one about drive, determination, overcoming, leading, passion, and an attitude that will not allow him to sit idle. I met Quinton when he was sixteen years old. I was in attendance when he took home the NAACP arts competition top award. His command of the violin was a sight to see and hear, especially as a young African American male. You could tell that this young man was going places. A few years later, on one of his trips home from college, Quinton visited with me and shared his aspirations. I was blown away by his vision for his future, his love for the canon of classical music created by Black composers, and ultimately, his desire to be of service. In the years since the time I first laid eyes on this young master, Quinton has exhausted his music education and holds a PhD in Violin Performance. He developed the chamber music program at Seattle University and insisted that his students have a full complement of business classes, urging that they should regard their art as their business. A tenured Seattle University Professor, Morris is only the second living African American violinist to hold this status. His world tour, BREAKTHROUGH, took him to 22 cities on 5 continents, and incorporated his self-produced short film based on the life and music of Chevalier de Saint-Georges. The documentary film, The Breakthrough, took first place at the European Independent Film Award Festival in Paris, the bronze award at the Global Music Awards and was premiered at New York Film Week and Las Vegas Lift-Off Film Festivals. He has also played at least 2 sold out performances at Carnegie Hall. Never resting on his laurels or already earned accolades, in 2017 Morris established Key to Change, a non-profit organization developed to reach young people through music and education by providing violin lessons. His target area is South King County, a highly diverse area with very few outlets for music training, particularly violin. The need for and interest in the services provided by Key To Change is evident in its 50% growth year over year since its inception. My admiration for, and friendship with Dr. Quinton Morris endures, and I am delighted to invite readers to tune in to Classical KING FM 98.1 as Morris begins his tenure as the first Artist-Scholar-in-Residence! Dr. Morris will be creating radio programs and podcasts for national distribution, featuring BIPOC composers and performers, called Unmute the Voices. The first episode airs June 19th at 3pm. Just a little something he has time to fit in between his professional life and his volunteer leadership as Co-Chair of the Seattle Arts Commission.

Being Black in America is being constantly reminded that you have no home. There is no safe haven where you are welcomed with open arms here. Post Obama presidency, the reminders of this reality have only intensified, as if folks needed to say, “How dare America be led by a Black man!” The backlash has been brazen. But what of our loyalty to and love for this country? Many Black writers, especially those of the Harlem Renaissance era, wrote of the stinging betrayal. None more brilliantly than the poetic phrases of Langston Hughes: I, TOO by Langston Hughes I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then. Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America.

A Nigerian sculpture that was looted by British troops in the late 19th century, one of thousands taken from the kingdom of Benin, will be returned to its country of origin by the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. According to Artnews, similar works stolen from Benin (what is now Edo State, Nigeria) have ended up in European institutions, but as of press time, no additional organization has fully committed to repatriating the Benin Bronzes except for the University of Aberdeen, whose sculpture depicts the ruler of Benin, known as the Oba. University of Aberdeen principal and vice-chancellor, George Boyne, said in statement, “It would not have been right to have retained an item of such great cultural importance that was acquired in such reprehensible circumstances. We therefore decided that an unconditional return is the most appropriate action we can take, and are grateful for the close collaboration with our partners in Nigeria.” Some institutions are offering not to display the sculptures instead of repatriating them, initially including the Humboldt Museum in Berlin, Germany. However in March, they announced they would begin to seek repatriation of the 530 works from the group in the collection of Berlin’s Ethnological Museum.Others, including the Church of England, are just now beginning talks to consider returning the works. The Church of England claims the pieces were gifted to them by the Benin kingdom and do not originate from the 1897 looting by British troops. According to a document being circulated by another institution, the Horniman Museum whose holdings include 15 Benin Bronzes, said it would consider returning objects that were removed from their respective homes as a result of “colonial violence." Although a small step in the right direction, experts estimate that there are somewhere between 3,000 to 5,000 sculptures still out there, making this insufficient at best. Digital Benin, an organization whose mission is to "digitally network the globally dispersed works of art from the former Kingdom of Benin," has been tracking which institutions possess Benin Bronzes. Their hope, along with building the digital database, is to see works returned and displayed at the Edo Museum of West African Art in Benin City, Nigeria, which opens in 2025. We look forward to following their work and seeing the Benin Bronzes returned to their rightful home.

This past March, Eric Motley was appointed to the executive ranks of the National Gallery of Art (NGA) and is slated to begin his role as Deputy Director on August 30, 2021. According to NGA, as Deputy Director, Motley will "lead the museum's externally facing, mission-based work, in service of the nation, by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity." His duties include overseeing congressional relations, communications, development and membership, special events, visitor experience and evaluation and the division of content strategy, publishing and branding. Mr. Motley has spent over two decades serving government, non-profit and private sector businesses. A few of his most notable positions were as an Executive Vice President of the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to “drive change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the greatest challenges of our time,” and as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush for Presidential Personnel, where he managed the appointment process in the White House for over 1,200 presidentially appointed advisory board and commission positions. Additionally he served the Bush Administration as a counselor to the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs for the US State Department, and also served as Director of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of International Visitors. “I believe that we are witnessing a paradigm shift in our nation with respect to the role that museums play in our cities and communities—connecting people to transcendent ideas and inspiring creativity,” Motley said in a statement. “This is where the National Gallery is headed and I am honored to contribute to this journey.” Amongst his career achievements, in 2017, he published a memoir, Madison Park, A Place of Hope, in which he tells the story of growing up in a small community in Montgomery, Alabama that was founded in 1880 by a group of freed slaves. Arté Noir wishes Mr. Motley well in his newest endeavor!

Who won a Neddy Award? SHE won that!!!! But what is a Neddy and how did Tariqa Waters win it? Let’s start with the award. First of all, the Neddy at Cornish Award is one of the Northwest’s largest and most esteemed annual awards for artists. Since 2011, Cornish College of the Arts has been a steward of this award, which is in honor of painter Robert. E. “Ned” Behnke. Awards are given to visual artists living and working in the Puget Sound Region. The 2020 award size was increased to $30,000 and Tariqa won the grand prize in the category of Open Medium. Anthony White was also awarded a grand prize in the Painting category for his work. And how exactly is one selected for a Neddy? Artists must submit an application including 12 - 15 samples, with a focus on work that fosters an awareness of or reflection on the world and human experience. Arté Noir says “Congratulations!” to both Anthony and Tariqa, and we hope you don’t mind that we give Tariqa just a bit more shine. She is after all Black Girl Magic personified! Tariqa Waters is worldly, and in many ways otherworldly. Her iconic art manifests in larger-than-life installations and sculptures presenting everyday objects mediated in environments and architectural spaces that become vehicles for confronting memories and inherited generational circumstances. While deeply personal, Tariqa’s installations are also quite accessible. Her 2018 exhibit at the Northwest African American Museum,100% Kanekalon: The Untold Story of the Marginalized Matriarch, featured her memories and invited the viewers to recall their own. We heard the trash talk of a spades game around a littered kitchen table where Dollar Store bags remind us of the need to make a lot of something out of a little nothing. The use of her grandmother’s hat, with whom she collaborated on the exhibit, is an ode to the generational style that passes through women in the Black community. The entire exhibit was a tribute to her grandmother’s post-church rituals. Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Tariqa’s art became defined while she was working as a muralist in Sicily, where she lived for several years. Moving to Seattle in 2012, her entrée into the Northwest arts scene was not one to which she was introduced. Instead, she introduced the community to Tariqa by opening a funky and fabulous gallery, Martyr Sauce, in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square. Martyr Sauce, the name a bit of a play on ketchup and hot sauce, is filled with choice ingredients – piss, distilled vinegar, irreverence, high fructose cough syrup, non hydrogenated snake oil, street or book smarts, white privilege, Black rage, natural flavor, artificial colors, made in a facility that processes deez nutz. We get the message! Tariqa’s work has garnered international recognition and deserves all that and more! Check her out at martyrsauce.com

Conversations around reparations are usually stilted by the minutia of details around dollar amounts and to whom payments would be made – direct descendants of slaves, up to what generation, how would they be paid, and on and on, all seemingly effective distractions intended to confuse and diffuse. Emerging to combat the maze of confusion, a group of Black architects, designers, artists, and scholars formed the nonprofit organization, Black Reconstruction Collective (BRC), to “amplify knowledge, production, and spatial practices by individuals and organizations…” The scant website describes their areas of focus as funding, design, and intellectual support to the ongoing and incomplete project of emancipation for the African Diaspora. And the website need not be laden with paragraph after paragraph of fancy descriptors, because the work speaks for itself. In a March 2021 article for Art in America, in his review of the MoMA exhibit Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, writer Julian Lucas poses the question, “How might the end of white supremacy transform American cities?” The MoMA exhibit is the debut for the BRC and consists of commissioned multimedia installations that analyze race and space in ten different cities from Watts to Syracuse. Each site is marked alongside the locations of freedmen's colonies on a map of the United States. In the catalogue that accompanies the exhibit, American historian Robin D.G. Kelley, writes that this kind of speculative scaffolding is a platform to reflect, “...on what it means for people determined to be free, to build for freedom, to retrofit a hostile and deadly built environment for reproduction of Black Life.” What is the Architecture of Reparations? is the first in a triptych of lectures given by members of the Black Reconstruction Collective to graduate architecture classes at major US universities. Visit the BRC website to learn more about their vision for attaining a reparative environment.