by Susan Fried
A little drizzle didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the thousands of people who showed up for the annual Umoja Fest, Africatown Heritage Festival & Parade on Saturday, Aug. 5. The two-day festival has been a part of Seafair weekend for decades, and there has been an annual parade in the community for 70 years.
Continue reading PHOTO ESSAY | Umoja Fest 2023by Patheresa Wells
Recently, I sat down to think about my journey to become an Arts & Culture reporter who often writes about Black art in Seattle. And it made me reflect on the potency that lies in Black art. The power that resides in creation in the face of oppression.
Continue reading Sankofa Theater and Wolf Delux Are Examples of Seattle’s Economic Divide for Black Artistsby Susan Fried
Joy, just like the music, reverberated throughout the Garfield High School gym as Bubblin Brown Sugar — the long-standing Seattle high school dance contest — got underway on Saturday, June 17.
Continue reading PHOTO ESSAY | Bubblin Brown Sugar 2023by Ronnie Estoque
On Monday, May 29, 23rd Avenue and Jackson Street was full of soulful music, lively dancing, tasty food, and over 100 Black vendors as Africatown Community Land Trust (ACLT) hosted their third annual Honoring Our Black Wall Streets event. The event honored the 102nd anniversary of the massacre and decimation of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Continue reading PHOTO ESSAY | Africatown Community Land Trust’s ‘Honoring Our Black Wall Streets’ Celebrates Local Black Businessesby Lauryn Bray
At the end of April, the Washington State Senate Committee released the amended 2023–2025 Biennial and 2023 Supplemental Capital Budgets, which included $6 million in funding for an affordable housing and early learning center project in Skyway. Originally, the proposed budgets allocated only $3 million for the affordable housing part of the project; however, after residents, activists, and legislators continued to advocate for the needs of the Skyway community, an additional $3 million was carved out in the amended budget for an early learning center.
Continue reading Skyway Community Receives Funding for Affordable Housing and Early Learning Centerby Chardonnay Beaver
On Saturday, May 13, Liberated Village held their Arts & Education Festival at Alan T. Sugiyama High School. Free to the community, the festival featured live performances from young Seattle rapper Skye-Dior and DJ Vitamin D, meals from The Original Philly’s (“Philly’s Best”) and Rooted on 23rd, presentations, and outdoor information booths.
Continue reading The Liberated Village Arts & Education Festival Celebrates School Without Wallsby Syris Valentine
Clouds couldn’t keep the crowd away. Over four less-than-sunny hours on April 22, an estimated 400 people flowed through Yes Farm — the one-and-a-half-acre urban farm on Yesler Terrace stewarded by the Black Farmers Collective — to celebrate Seattle’s second annual Black Earth Day with food, music, and good old-fashioned gardening. The event was co-organized by the Black Farmers Collective and the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle to celebrate Black people’s contributions to the environmental movement, provide a green space that’s welcoming for Black people who feel disconnected from the land, and encourage more people to get involved in the environmental justice movement.
Continue reading Black Is the New Green: The Beauty of Black Earth Day at Yes Farmby Lauryn Bray
In honor of Seattle Black Maternal Health Week 2023, Black Liberated Kin Mobilizing Access for Maternal Autonomy & Solidarity (BLK MAMAS) Collective hosted an event at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute on April 14. Their fourth annual celebration, “Our Joy Be Full: Black Kin Healing the Collective Body,” and the event created space for conversations about self-responsibility and rest, reclaiming bodily autonomy, and embodied practices of joy. In accordance with Black Mamas Matter Alliance’s (BMMA) official 2023 programming theme, “Our Bodies Belong to Us: Restoring Black Autonomy and Joy, Our Joy Be Full” was an event designed to build community among Black birth workers and Black birthing people while celebrating and bringing awareness to Black maternal health in order to promote and facilitate collective healing.
Continue reading Seattle Black Maternal Health Week 2023 Restores Black Autonomy and Joyby Ari Robin McKenna
While working to rebuild Rainier Beach High School throughout the cold, dark rainy winter, Israel Presley carries up to 60 lbs in his belt and pack. His pack often includes three drills (each with different bits), a double-jack sledgehammer, “cowbells,” “come-alongs,” and a “yo-yo” — a retractable lifeline that allows him to move about the jobsite, but would catch him should he fall.
Continue reading The Hopes and Fears of a Former Student Working to Rebuild Rainier Beach High Schoolby Phil Manzano
Karen Wells stepped outside the meeting room, packed on a bright Saturday with children and parents, as an instructor spoke about chess moves and strategy. She has been bringing her two nieces to the Rainier Beach Community Center for about a year so they can participate in the Detective Cookie Chess Club.
News broke over the weekend that Seattle Police Department Detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin filed a $10 million claim against the City of Seattle, alleging a discriminatory and hostile workplace.
“It was very upsetting to me,” said Wells. “I really got angry, but I wasn’t surprised.”
Continue reading South End Community Support Seattle Detective Who Filed Discrimination Claim Against City and Police Department
