by Patheresa Wells
Remember when everyone was walking around their neighborhoods during lockdown? Wa Na Wari took the spirit behind the community engagement that comes from strolling through your streets and combined it with its commitment to being a container for Black joy. The 3rd Annual Walk the Block takes place on Saturday, Sept. 30, from 2–6 p.m.
Continue reading Walk the Block Returns for a Third Yearby Jas Keimig
If you’ve taken a walk around the Central District lately, perhaps you’ve noticed some things around the neighborhood that look a little different. On 23rd and East Spring Street, you might have spotted a banner with an image of a disembodied hand holding a brick of chicken bouillon billowing in the wind atop a tall lamp post. From the window of Arte Noir on East Union, maybe you’ve spied a cozy painting in banner form of two Black women and their dog gazing out at you.
Continue reading Public Art Project ‘Femme Noire’ Blossoms in the Central Districtby Lauryn Bray
Applications for the City of Seattle’s Food Equity Fund (FEF) Capacity Building Grant opened on May 1. The Department of Neighborhoods will accept applications until Oct. 31 and will review them on a rolling basis. The City encourages BIPOC-led community organizations, tribal organizations, and nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status working within Seattle to create equitable and sustainable local food systems to apply.
Continue reading Capacity Building Grant Applications Now Open to Support Food Equityby Jas Keimig
Theda Sandiford has always been making art.
As the daughter of a Caribbean father and a German-Polish mother, the Queens-born artist grew up helping her grandmother sew sequins onto G-strings and feather headdresses for Carnival. “My grandmother was old school,” Sandiford told me over the phone recently. “She believed every proper young lady needed to know how to sew.” Deeply attuned to the world around her, Sandiford consistently found inspiration in items and objects that others might consider unworthy of artistic pursuit.
Continue reading Emotional Baggage Carts and Painted Rice Paper at Wa Na Wariby Shamaar Thomas
The “Cake Walk,” an event fondly remembered from Wa Na Wari’s cofounder Elisheba Johnson’s childhood, is getting a 21st-century makeover. On April 4, the nonprofit Black arts center Wa Na Wari will celebrate its fourth birthday and host its first Cake Dance event at Washington Hall in Seattle. Accompanied by Northwest bakeries, such as Tom Douglas, the cake dance is not only a celebration of Wa Na Wari’s presence in the Central District since 2019, but also a moment to capture Black joy, Johnson says. As a Black artist and curator for Wa Na Wari, Johnson says she is excited to bring back a tradition with a history of growing community ties. In doing so, the event aims to carry out Wa Na Wari’s vision of preserving Black culture and art in Seattle.
Continue reading Wa Na Wari’s Upcoming Cake Dance Offers a Moment to Dance, Win Cakes, and Celebrate Black Joyby Amanda Ong
From March 23 to March 26, On the Boards will present the UN-[TITLED] Project, a multi-site project at Wa Na Wari and Inscape Arts to immersively engage with gentrification, displacement, community meaning, cultural memory, and healing in the Central District and the Chinatown-International District (CID). The project was conceived, created, and curated by Berette S Macaulay, with the partnership of the Black Heritage Society of Washington State, Vanishing Seattle, The Sankofa Theater, and Arte Noir. Although her background includes places as diverse as her birthplace of Sierra Leone, the U.K., Jamaica, and Manhattan, Macaulay knew she wanted to create a piece deeply rooted in local Seattle stories.
Continue reading UN-[TITLED] Project Reflects on Gentrification in CID and Central Districtcurated by Vee Hua 華婷婷
by Patheresa Wells
Walk the Block is an art festival and fundraiser for Wa Na Wari, a Central District hub for Black creativity whose name means “our home” in Kalabari. The festival encourages participants to stroll through the neighborhood, where homes, businesses, parks, porches, and other shared spaces are turned into art installations and performance sites. The second annual Walk the Block takes place on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2–6 p.m. beginning at the Medgar Evers Pool at 23rd and Jefferson.
Continue reading Wa Na Wari’s Walk the Block Returns as the Biggest Black Art Festival in the Northwestby Patheresa Wells
If you close your eyes and imagine what joy sounds like, what might you hear? The laughter of a loved one? The crescendo of your favorite piece of music? When I tried to recall the sounds of joy, so many other senses flooded in — they kept trying to drown out the sounds. This made me realize that sound can often be an overpowering experience, making silence a relief. But if we do not explore sound — do not imagine its possibilities or examine how it can shape us — then, we may find ourselves blocked. We may discover that silence becomes a barrier because the ability to make noise is a privilege.
Continue reading ‘Joy Has a Sound: Black Sonic Visions’ — a Book Review of Wa Na Wari’s New Anthologyby Patheresa Wells
A seven-day African American and Pan-African celebration starting on Dec. 26, Kwanzaa — created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga — was developed as a way to connect, commemorate, and honor community and culture by focusing on Nguzo Saba, or the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa. These principles are rooted in traditions of first fruits or harvest celebrations that are found throughout Africa. Even the name of the celebration is taken from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, or “first fruits.”
Continue reading Kwanzaa — a Holiday of Purpose and Principles
