Tag Archives: Black women

Voices

OPINION | ‘Practical Audacity’: On Writing About Black Women and the Future of Human Rights

by Reagan Jackson

As we slide into April, I find myself chafing at the idea that Black history and women’s history should only be relegated to one month. Consider this part of my contribution to uplift Black women’s stories all day every day: I want to amplify the work of someone who has fundamentally shaped my understanding of Black feminism and, generally, the world, my mom, Dr. Stanlie M. James.

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News

Det. Denise ‘Cookie’ Bouldin, Revered SPD Community Liaison, Sues Department and City

by Tobias Coughlin-Bogue

In 2006, Seattle Police Department (SPD) detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin started the Detective Cookie Chess Club, a program aimed to provide Rainier Beach youth with something positive to do in their spare time, exposing them to a game that, as the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA once said, “is good for everyday thinking, especially for brothers in the urban community who never take that second look, never take that second thought.”

In 2022, the City of Seattle honored Bouldin’s decades of effort with the opening of the Detective Cookie Chess Park, a corner park on Rainier Avenue South, 51st Street South, and South Barton Place, anchored by a giant chessboard, itself flanked by a semicircle of chess tables.

On March 10, 2023, Bouldin filed a $10 million claim against the city, alleging ongoing harassment and discrimination along racial and gender lines throughout her more than 40 years at SPD.

On Nov. 3, Bouldin sued the city, after it “failed to respond meaningfully” to her original claim, which it had 60 days to do.

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Arts & Culture

The Works of Local Black Women Artists Shine at Gallery Onyx’s ‘Embrace Equity’

by Victor Simoes

From March 7 to May 12 the Onyx Fine Arts Collective celebrates Black women artists with “Embrace Equity.” The 48 works by 28 artists not only celebrate artistic excellence but create a discussion on equity and equality. It is the first gallery opening for many of these artists, whose artwork includes paintings and mixed-media compositions that incorporate collage and textile work into the canvas. 

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Arts & Culture

Newly Elected Shermona Mitchell Comes Full Circle as Sound Theatre’s New Co-Artistic Director

by Victor Simoes

The Sound Theatre Company (STC) recently announced Shermona Mitchell would become its new co-artistic director. A multifaceted theater artist and the first Black woman to lead the Sound Theatre board, Mitchell assumed the new position in January. Working with the founder and the other co-artistic director of the STC, Teresa Thuman, Mitchell will support the company’s mission to uplift local actors, directors, and audiences while bringing attention to stories often silenced by systemic oppression.

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News

South End Community Support Seattle Detective Who Filed Discrimination Claim Against City and Police Department

by 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.”

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News

A Black-Women-Led Collective of Doulas Is Working to Open a Holistic Birth Center in King County

by Lauryn Bray

Content Warning: This article discusses medical racism and traumatic birth and postpartum experiences.

Research shows that Black women across the United States are dying from childbirth at a disproportionate rate due to medical negligence in what has been referred to as the Black maternal health crisis. BLKBRY, a collective of reproductive and birth workers, doulas, lactation and feeding specialists, and womb healers founded by Jazmin Williams, is currently working to raise $4 million to purchase, renovate, and launch a Black-owned wellness and birth center to specifically serve Black women in and around King County. Williams, who has been training and practicing as a doula for years, says she was called to her work after a traumatic birth and postpartum experience with both of her children left her outraged at the incompetent care Black women receive during and after childbirth.

“What we’re building at BLKBRY is a center no one has seen before. The fact that we are centering the descendants of enslaved Africans of the U.S., the fact that this is for the African diaspora and that when you come here, you see representation of us both in this space. This is a safe space for us,” explained Williams. 

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Arts & Culture

Thriving in Top 40: Besa Gordon Wants to Inspire a New Generation of Radio Hosts

by Victor Simoes

One of the few Black women in Seattle’s Top 40 radio shows, Besa Gordon has been hosting iHeartRadio’s HITS 106.1 weeknight and Sunday shows since October 2022. From her start as a blogger, to joining iHeartRadio’s street team, to becoming an award-winning media personality and digital manager at Black media production company Converge Media, Gordon has come a long way to establish herself as one of the most recognizable voices on Seattle’s radio waves. 

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Voices

OPINION | How My Black and Indigenous Ancestry Guides My Perception of Generational Wealth

by Lauryn Bray

When I was 18, my grandfather told me that in 1936, the U.S. government cut a check to my great-grandmother for $2,000 and took her land in Oklahoma. She had inherited a farmhouse that sat on several acres. This property had been in my family for decades, and from what I understand, it did not go willingly. $2,000 in 1936 — when my great-grandmother would have had custody of this property — is worth about $42,879 now. Needless to say, she was ripped off.

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Arts & Culture

‘That Talk You Do’ Reflects on Tia Naché’s Adolescence in Rainier Valley

by Amanda Ong

From Nov. 4 to Nov 13, White Center’s Acts On Stage will present “That Talk You Do,” the debut one-woman show of Tia Naché Fields-Yarborough. “That Talk You Do” follows Fields-Yarborough through her own life and youth in Seattle as she explores faith, Blackness, and womanhood through song, spoken word, hip-hop, and ’90s R&B.

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Voices

OPINION | Remembering Candace Smiley, the Legendary MzTwist

by Troy Landrum, Jr.

Our physical bodies fade. Our spirits transition. Our legacies lay down roots. The legacies of Black entrepreneurs have been planted in the Northwest soil for many decades. These histories and legacies are being unpacked and recognized for the first time in front of our very eyes. The history of these individuals represents to us, as Black people, the trees that were already growing in our backyards. While the whole world is currently reading about these legacies, these are the stories that are passed down to us, whispered in our ears by our elders and ancestors from a very young age. These stories are a part of our fabric, our DNA. They have been one of the reasons for our survival. They are the stories that we pass down — our folklore of the heroes who pushed against resistance and produced progress, not just for an individual, but for communities. 

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