I worked on this story in April and it's finally out! This issue marks my first magazine cover photo, which was a particular challenge because I had very little time with the family to shoot it. (About 10 minutes.)
I can't thank the story subjects enough, particularly Christina and Mariel, for generously sharing their stories of housing instability.
"The Black Arts Movement, wrote scholar Larry Neal in 1968, is the “spiritual sister” to the Black Power movement. It is “radically opposed to any concept of the artist that alienates him from his community.” It also “envisions an art that speaks directly to the needs and aspirations of Black America.”
This philosophical underpinning can be seen throughout the current exhibition, All Power: Visual Legacies of the Black Panther Party at Photographic Center Northwest. In the exhibition, you see a range of work by contemporary African-American artists, including enlarged images of the FBI file of postal worker Rodney Ellis Barnette; a black and white photo of “Long Live Huey P” graffiti on an Oakland street; and an image of the Afro-American center at the Pan-African cultural festival in Algiers, Algeria, in 1969. ..." READ MORE
Connie Matthews by Robert Wade. Copenhagen, Denmark 1969. (Photo courtesy of the photographer from All Power: Visual Legacies of the Black Panther Party, PCNW 2018)
This story was fascinating to write. Danai Gurira is a phenomenal actor, playwright and is bringing stories of African women and African immigrant families to the stage.
"I became very, very, ravenous for depictions and storytelling that came specifically from the African perspective, because I couldn’t find many. It was really a necessity for me to start creating narrative around those stories. And actually I found it quite thrilling to do so." - Danai Gurira
Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP
Danai Gurira photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP
This piece on gentrification and displacement I wrote this month for Seattle Magazine and cross-published in Crosscut featuring Inye Wokoma is dear to my heart. Our city is transforming rapidly, what future do we want to see? Please read, share and comment.
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