KING 5's 'Cultivating Culture' series to highlight Black culture in western Washington

A nonprofit in Seattle’s Central District is uplifting local Black artists and creatives. Arte Noir was founded by Vivian Phillips in May 2021. It started as an online publication. In September 2022, a brick-and-mortar location opened at the corner of 23rd and Union.

“What we do here is we provide a home, a place in our historically black community, for black artists and black creatives to be showcased, to be supported, and to generate revenue,” said Executive Director Jazmyn Scott.

The location also includes a fine art gallery. It rotates Black art throughout the year. The retail space creates a permanent home to increase opportunities for local Black artists to showcase and sell their work.

“The relief that people exhibited when I said we want to purchase your items upfront. We will do the work of the marketing and promotion and selling, you just bring this stuff here and we'll take care of the rest, and then we're able to put money in their pocket," said Scott. “It eliminates a barrier for them of having to do so much work, after they've already been creating, we can now say let us take care of the rest.”

Arte Noir also represents the revitalization of Seattle’s Central District, a neighborhood that has changed dramatically over the years.

According to historical records, in the 1960s Seattle’s central district was 90% Black. It’s now below 10%.

“We were redlined in this community. This was the only place that we were really designated to be. So, this is where our businesses were. This is where all the homeownership was. That's why the impact of gentrification hurts so bad because we know how we got here. It was really like a slap in the face to lose so much, for so many different reasons,” said Scott.

Several Black Seattleites, like Scott and Phillips, are pushing to reclaim the community.

“Instead of feeling like something is happening to us, we decided to take control of our destiny and say, you know what, we want to have a permanent place in our community that's for us, that's by us. And we don't have to follow anybody's rules, but our own,” said Scott.

One of the artists featured in the space is Joey Robinson. He’s designed thousands of paintings, but his Black Maids tribute is his most prominent work.

“From slavery to reconstruction, Black women, many of them worked as maids, the ones that didn't get a chance to go to college or school,” said artist Joey Robinson.

Joey started the tribute in 2003 to honor his neighbor, Lois Spellman who was killed during the 1967 riots.

Outrage over racial injustice sparked riots in 158 cities that summer, including Joey’s hometown, Newark, New Jersey.

“As a kid, I remember hearing gunshots. I remember hearing people screaming, they killed Lois, they killed Lois, they killed Lois,” said Robinson.” Lois was very beautiful and very tall. And when she would go to church on Sundays, she had a committee waiting for her. But she also did a job that no one no one else wanted to do.”

Each painting tells the story of a real maid. The tributes have been purchased by collectors from all over the world and were featured on Grey’s Anatomy.

Robinson says the paintings weren’t always seen in a positive light.

“At first when I started painting, I was criticized for them having a black face just a black face,” said Robinson.

Joey credits Arte Noir for giving the series a new audience.

“They were like, angels, they came down,” said Robinson. “I heard about this new art gallery that was opening in Central. I didn't know how to be a part of it.”

A meeting between Phillips and Scott sparked the idea to take ‘Black Maids’ from the canvas to cups and bags.

“They’re the only ones that believed in me to do that,” said Robinson. “People had mentioned that before, but no one's ever done it. It was too daring.”

In the coming months, Arte Noir will expand to include a small recording studio for training young people in audio and music production.

For Black actors, the path to the spotlight can be challenging.

“I think theaters get into this sort of rhythm of programming their plays, where it can be like, 'Oh, we're doing like the one Black show this season,” said Andrew Lee Creech, the creator of Last Drive to Dodge. “If you don't get that role, then your opportunities to act for that entire season are sort of limited. And then on top of that, the roles that we're then getting, are kind of like, I'm not really seeing the authenticity, I'm not really seeing, like myself represented how I want to be represented.”

That reality pushed Creech to stop acting and start writing to create more lead roles for Black actors. Creech grew up in Columbia City and said it’s important to tell his stories in his community to create spaces for Black people to be seen.

Creech's latest play, Last Drive to Dodge, is the start of a series of plays highlighting Black people throughout American history.

“This is like the time where the American ideals are like really taking hold,” Creech said. “I wanted to explore this period of transition, but through Black lens in this time period, that is typically whitewashed in our cultural awareness of the Old West.”

Andrew thanked The Hansberry Project for helping bring this vision to life.

Since 2006, the organization has been giving Black artists a space for expression.

“We support any theater that is putting up a Black show, that is showcasing the work of Black playwrights and hiring and giving work to Black theatre artists and technicians, and designers,” said Valerie Curtis-Newton, the director of the play.

Curtis-Newton also co-founded The Hansberry Project, which was named after Lorraine Hansberry, the first Black woman to have a play performed on Broadway.

She said sometimes that support means paying for health care or advertising, not only in Seattle but across the country.

“I think that when I'm doing Hansberry work, I don't think about it," Curtis-Newton said. "But when I have moments like this, where to hear Andrew talk about his feeling that Hansberry has been in his corner. It's very, very gratifying. I look around and I see the people that we've helped get their equity card, I see people that we've helped get more performances than one, and how our investment has lifted those boats.”

In 2020, the Asian American Performers Action Coalition released a visibility report revealing that the BIPOC community was severely under-represented.

Only 29% of roles were for Black people during 2018-2019, the last full season before the COVID-19 shutdown. 

“Historically, from the beginning, Black folks have been, have had a tense relationship with the American Theatre," Curtis-Newton said. "The African Grove theatre was the first. They were indirect head-to-head competition with a with a white professional theatre. And racism was used as a tactic to keep it small and, and eventually turn it out of business. So, we were pushed out and decided, well, if we can't do what you're doing, the way you're doing it, we'll make it for ourselves.”

The Hansberry Project is hoping to change those numbers one play at a time.

In a city like Seattle, filling the seats with more Black faces is a difficult task.

“I think that the important thing for us to remember is that when we think of an all-Black space, we do think of church, we think of coming in and seeing a sea of Black faces," Curtis-Newton said. "But, when the Hansberry Project started in 2004, we had just done the 2000 Census. And at that point, Black folks were I think, 8% of the population."

Since then that number has declined to 6.8% according to the 2020 Census.

No matter who is in the audience their goal is to make sure that Black people are showcased in their full humanity.

“I’ve had Black women come up to me specifically in tears feeling like they have been seen and represented,” Creech said. “Which to me is like the biggest compliment, bump what the reviews say, to me that is like okay, we're doing well, we're doing what we set out to do."

Music has a way of bringing people together. 

For Bobby Akinboro, it was his answer to solve the problems he faced when he moved to Seattle in 2016 to start his career at Microsoft.

“Straight out of school I came out here," Akinboro said. "I was really excited to start this Program Management role and get my feet wet, only to realize that there was a much bigger problem facing me. I wanted to start building a community because I couldn't find one here in the city. I never found issue finding people like me. Then I get to Seattle, and it felt like it was a struggle and then the 'Seattle freeze' on top of that made it even more difficult."

Akinboro was 22 when he arrived in the Pacific Northwest. He thought the area should have brunches, parties, and areas for young black professionals to come together. He decided to learn to DJ to create that community.

“I don't know why that was the solution in my head," Akinboro said. "But I was like, I'm going to figure this thing out and I'm going to bring people together through music. What I thought was just going to be a hobby, and a pastime has really become a full career."

More Cultivating Culture: 'Black Pages' highlights Black-owned businesses throughout Seattle

Akinboro’s stage name is "DJ Blast." Some people even call him Bobby Blast. His name is now synonymous with the hip-hop and afro beats music scene in Seattle.

“Growing up music was never really a part of the picture," Akinboro said. "I love music. But I never thought that's what I want to do. I’m an immigrant born and raised in Nigeria. So, when I thought of careers, there were only four options, I had to be an engineer, a doctor, a lawyer and accountant. Moving to Seattle, and somehow becoming a DJ was never in the cards for me. It kind of plays off, like Alter Ego. I get the chance to be this person that I'm not at Microsoft. It’s a really cool dichotomy between the two.”

Akinboro held his first event in 2016, three months after moving to Seattle. Seventy-five people showed up and packed the venue. 

More Cultivating Culture: What's it like to travel while Black in Washington? Behind the scenes of a popular YouTube series

Three months later his second event brought 300 people and did the same thing. Akinboro realized he was on to something as people continued to pack his events.

“Then someone from Microsoft came up (and) they were like, ‘Hey, man you work with us but you're doing all this on the side? Why don't we like bring you to Microsoft and do something?'" Akinboro said. "That's how I do my very first concert for Pitbull. Now I go from rooms of 300 to a room of 5,000 at Gasworks Park. I thought, 'oh I can really do this.' That changed my entire perspective on life."

Since then, Akinboro has done over 30 concerts and six tours all over the world. He’s opened shows for several artists including Dua Lipa, Nas, One Republic, Burna Boy and Wale.

“I say all the time God knew what He was doing for me," Akinboro said. "There's no way I could ever see any of this coming. I remember when I did the 25th Anniversary Illmatic tour. I did the Oakland Arena that seats 40,000 people. Less than a year prior to that the biggest event I had done was 5,000. So, things changed very quickly. I remember the first time I did Climate Pledge Arena for Dua Lipa. I'm like Dua Lipa, she's no joke and they called me. There's so many situations that I find myself in now, where I'm just consistently in awe at all of what God's doing in my life."

Akinboro is now a pioneer and resource for people seeking black culture in the Pacific Northwest.

“I remember when it first started, around 2019," Akinboro said. "People were like, ‘Hey, we heard about you. We're moving to the city or we're coming to the city for the weekend. What should we do?’ I mean, when did I become TripAdvisor? When did I become that person? Then I realized no, this is an area of responsibility. Some people’s entire experience of Seattle could happen through me. I started taking that a lot more seriously."

More Cultivating Culture: 'The Collective' aims to bring the Black community together in Seattle

Six years later Akinboro has seen the change for the better when it comes to finding black culture.

“It's very different before it was one black community, at least transplants," Akinboro said. "Now, there's several, you can find 5 or 6 events on the same day, whereas before you couldn't find 5 or 6 events in the same month."

Justice Jones is doing her part to elevate black businesses.

Page-by-page in a small room in Seattle’s University District, Jones works on "Black Pages," a community-focused not-for-profit directory of local black businesses in the Seattle and greater Seattle area.

Jones has lived in this area for a decade, after moving from Philadelphia for college. 

Jones said the black community lives off of each other in Philadelphia. When she was growing up, Jones said Black-owned businesses were much more common than in Seattle.

“It’s not just a feeling of safety and acceptance," Jones said. "It's all-pure black ownership. And so everyone that’s inside of our book are black business owners, black business operators. And obviously, we’re trying to recirculate the black dollar within our community as many times as possible.”

The idea for Black Pages came to her in 2017 when Jones started visiting a Japanese restaurant on Capitol Hill.

“They had directories on the door with all the Asian businesses in Seattle," Jone said. "And, so I thought that was really cool, and I was wondering why don’t we have something like that for the black community.”

Jones could not find a Black version of the Asian directory, so she created it. Her first black pages were a digital launch in 2019.

But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Jones started with around 80 businesses but lost about 50% of her clients at the beginning of 2020.

According to CNBC, black-owned businesses declined by 41% between February and April 2020, compared to a 17% decline among white-owned businesses.

More Cultivating Culture: What's it like to travel while Black in Washington? Behind the scenes of a popular YouTube series

As the pandemic disproportionately affected Black-owned businesses, Jones said that's why it's so important to have Black-owned spaces in the community.

“I feel like having autonomy in our community and the black community is extremely important," Jones said. "You can live black for a year straight if you felt like it. The only thing that’s separating people from doing that is the knowledge of where to go.”

More Cultivating Culture: 'The Collective' aims to bring the Black community together in Seattle

Jones said this is the first year since the pandemic that there is a physical version of "Black Pages." For the past few years, Jones said she was providing a digital program and an app that charged $1 per download. 

"Black Pages" features everything from lawyers to grocery stores to bookstores to artists and bands, she said.

One of the businesses featured in the directory is Christ-E Boxing Dojo in North Seattle.

The owner Soloman Prince is from the Central District.

“The city of Seattle, you know where our so-called Black population isn’t too big," Prince said. "But, I feel we have a lot of entrepreneurs here that don’t get the light that should be shined upon us.”

Jones is that spotlight. A one-woman show that is a passion project.

More Cultivating Culture: What's it like being Black in the Pacific Northwest?

“You can live black for a year straight if you felt like it," Jones said. "The only thing that’s separating people from doing that is the knowledge of where to go."

Right now, that spotlight is only on Seattle entrepreneurs, but Jones plans to expand across Washington state and eventually the West Coast.

Since 2019, Anthony and Marlie Love have documented their journeys to Pacific Northwest towns through their "Traveling While Black" YouTube channel.

The couple said the idea was motivated by "The Negro Motorist Green Book." It was designed to help African Americans plot a safe passage through cities across the United States.

They didn’t know which PNW cities would feel safe after moving from St. Louis to Seattle for work.

“In Missouri and St. Louis, there’s just more black people," Marlie Love said. "So, walking into an establishment, it’s not surprising to see people that look like you, compared to western Washington, Seattle, you can go sometimes go days without seeing someone that looks like you, and that is a little uncomfortable at times."

In each episode, the Loves rate a town based on the drive, level of fun, and comfort level for Black people.

“A lot of people ask us what makes a great comfort for black people score,” Anthony Love said. “A lot of it is what any human would look for, a friendly face when you walk into places, not really getting those looks like you don’t belong here."

More Cultivating Culture: 'The Collective' aims to bring the Black community together in Seattle

“Even signs, when you see Black Lives Matter, even if it’s all people that don’t look like you, seeing those signs bring that comfort feeling as well,” Marlie Love said.

In February, instead of focusing on how comfortable they felt in a town, the couple visited towns to learn about their connection to Black history.

Our KING 5 crew joined them on their trip to Roslyn. The Loves wanted to focus on the black connection to the coal mining town, which dates back more than 130 years.

“Approximately 300 miners total arrive between 1888-1889, resulting in the single largest increase of black population in the history of the state,” Marlie Love said.

Historian Quintard Taylor said Black Washingtonians whose roots have been in the state for several generations could be descendants of that group of original miners.

By 1900, Roslyn had the highest population of black people in the Pacific Northwest.

The Loves said making these videos has made them the resource they were looking for when they first moved to Seattle. They said the reviews on their YouTube channel have been mostly positive.

“People say thank you for doing this because I am nervous about moving to Seattle, not really knowing what the black experience is like,” Marlie Love said.

More Cultivating Culture: What's it like being Black in the Pacific Northwest? 

“Sometimes we get accused by folks who don’t understand why we do it, of looking for racism,” Anthony Love said. “We try reminding them by living in the Green Book that Victor Green, I feel like his intent wasn’t to look for racism because back then racism was prevalent, it was out there. I feel like his intent was really to enable travel, black travel and showcase the positive.”

The tech industry brings thousands of transplants to Western Washington.

It can be difficult to find community in a new city.

Anthony Kerr and Mohammed Adeeyo took a unique approach to finding community after moving to Seattle in 2013.

“I thought Seattle’s an incredible city with a lot of vibrancy. It was difficult to find the young black professional community and some of the things that I would do when I was in D.C., or I was visiting L.A. or New York City just weren’t quite as visible or didn’t happen as often here,” Kerr said.

“Unlike Atlanta, finding black culture in Washington has to become a conscious and deliberate decision, otherwise finding community was difficult,” Adeeyo said.

Kerr is a Senior Marketing Manager at Microsoft. Adeeyo is an Engineering Manager at Boeing, together they created The Collective. The organization hosts a range of events including hikes, spin classes, poetry shows, brunches, day parties and more. Their goal is to foster experiences for a diverse group of movers, shakers, explorers, thinkers, and doers.

The idea came from a group chat they called "Young Black Professionals of Seattle." It was formed one weekend when the duo was out with friends, and they couldn’t figure out what to do after dinner and didn’t know anyone to ask what was happening in the city.

“Initially, we had about 20 people in there,” Kerr said. “Over time, it grew to like 50 people, then 500 people, then 1000 people. At that point, I changed the name to The Collective because the purpose evolved. Initially, it was this group of young professionals in a similar situation in Seattle. Over time, it became a place where people could create real friendships. People found business partners. People found connections to get new jobs. People found people they wanted to date. It really this became like a means to get what you needed out of the city through this community, community of people.”

The group became too big to pop up at random spots across Western Washington. Now, The Collective events sell out within hours of being posted.

“I think that’s a testament to the energy people have to create community and want that kind of circle,” Kerr said. “So whether it's a poetry show, a happy hour, brunch, or to go on a hike, there's always more than enough energy for people who want to participate to just be around cool people who are willing and open to be their friend or just help them navigate the city.”

“The response to The Collective has morphed over the years, but the consistent theme in all of them has been visibility,” Adeeyo said. “Regardless of what events we’re doing, folks are happy to see others who look like them. It brings a sense of psychological safety to know that in our spaces race is one thing you won’t have to worry about.”

The events are usually around $20 to keep things affordable.

“I didn't imagine it being a business that would like to replace my income," Kerr said. "We charge enough to not lose money and pay everybody that's involved. We don't want people to break the bank to come to our events. With that being said, we're always open to partners who can share in this mission and want to help sponsor some of these activities that we can make it more accessible to more people.”

In the next 5-10 years, the group hopes to expand and find corporate partners in the city. Kerr plans to partner with organizations with similar missions in Portland and Vancouver to try and connect the Pacific Northwest.

The first story in our Cultivating Culture series is a panel discussion with black transplants and Washingtonians to compare the dynamic of how you see life in the Pacific Northwest, based on where they are from. 

Derrick and Tanise Love moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2020 from Charlotte, NC. Dazjon Johnson is from Tacoma. Sydney Swonigan is from Seattle.

Derrick and Tanise created Sync Seattle, a monthly mixer to provide opportunities for networking amongst Black Seattle. 

Johnson owns the clothing store eTc Tacoma and curates events for the community revolving around food, art, or entertainment. 

Swonigan founded Exes & Babies to uplift and up-level co-parenting and blended families of all backgrounds through podcasts and coaching. 

What were your initial thoughts when you arrived here in Seattle?

Derrick Love: "Arriving here, you know, you see, the area is beautiful. But then you don't see a lot of us, you know, so it was something that was very glaringly obvious to us that, you know, there wasn't as many of us as we're used to seeing around. We actually went back to the east coast a couple of months after moving here to visit some of my family in Baltimore. We were saying, Wow, there's so many black people here. We had gotten used to not seeing people that look like us around.”

Tanise Love: "I think it took a while to get used to it,” So again, moving from the South, and like, seeing us all day, every day, having to kind of shift our expectations and just shift our norm."

Derrick Love: "You start missing some of the smaller cultural elements. So for example, one of the last places we ate before leaving Charlotte was a soul food barbecue place. Coming here, I was like, Where can I get some good ribs? Who has the best fried chicken? I'm a food guy. So that's what I was looking for. It kind of became apparent that I would have to adjust to what the norms are here. I started liking some of the things that are prevalent around. I think I spent the first couple of months eating a whole bunch of teriyaki every time I got a chance for lunch, and loved it started loving it."

Swonigan: “I always feel for transplants or coming to Seattle looking for certain experiences when it comes to black culture. I always feel bad and like, oh, what can we do to make you stay, don't leave, we need the numbers. It's unique for me when I've been to Baltimore, places like that, and gone through the grocery stores and I only see black people for aisles and aisles. I didn't realize how surprised I would be. I didn't realize how white the space is here in Seattle. But there's so much beauty here in other ways and the community that is here is strong. We’re small, but mighty."

Johnson: “I had the privilege of living in Alabama and going to HBCU and my family originates from the Carolinas. So I do miss a lot of good food spots out there that we don't have out here, but I think the diversity that we have here gives us the opportunity to be able to move in a lot of different rooms that a lot of people can't move in being black because of seeing things differently. I think when you see the same thing all the time, you get used to that, you're not able to adjust as much when you do get outside of your norm. I think growing up here was a good way to be thrown into the melting pot of races and different ethnicities. Then we do go to a more predominantly black area, you stand out a certain way and represent your culture still at a high level because of the experience that you have. But being able to go to the HBCU I totally understand and feel their energy. I think for us, it's about bringing the experience back to the Pacific Northwest. That has been my biggest purpose since coming back home after leaving my HBCU. I could have stayed in the South and enjoyed what we have out there."