By Anya Shukla Matt Remle wears many hats—he’s passed several laws here in Seattle, works as a teacher at Marysville High School, and writes for Last Real Indians. Remle, along with Chase Iron Eyes, co-founded Last Real Indians in 2012, in response to the absence of Native and Indigenous stories in the media. Over the past eight years, the news site has gained a significant following and serves as a collective of Native and Indigenous authors, organizers, and content-creators.
0 Comments
By Anya Shukla and Kathryn Lau “I dreamt of a world where Shakespeare and the identities I hold could share space,” said Aneesh Sheth during the introduction to her play, “Much Ado About Nothing.”“Because the opportunity for South Asian trans woman like myself to play Beatrice is nonexistent.”
By Anya Shukla On May 25, 2020, a group of Minneapolis artists—including Xena Goldman, Cadex Herrera, and Greta McLain, among others—created a mural in honor of George Floyd. Their piece has since received extensive publicity from outlets such as CNN to the Former President Barack Obama himself. We were lucky enough to speak to one of the mural’s designers and painters, Cadex Herrera, to learn more about the artwork, as well as the community response to the piece.
By Anya Shukla In 2019, Elisheba Johnson, Inye Wokoma, Jill Freidberg, and Rachel Kessler started Wa Na Wari, a Seattle organization housed in the historically-Black Central District. Located in Wokoma’s grandmother’s home, Wa Na Wari celebrates Black artistry through events, workshops, and art exhibits. I spoke with Elisheba Johnson to learn more about her artistic practice, as well as Wa Na Wari as a whole. Q: How did you first get started in art? A: I started writing poetry in middle school. I wanted to be the Poet Laureate of the United States—which was, you know, like who ever gets that job, but I thought it’d be cool. Other than that, however, I never really thought I would be in the art world. But something just moved me right before my senior year of high school: I was like, “I want to go to art school.” So I started taking every art class I could take, in school and outside of school, pulled my portfolio together, and got into Cornish College of the Arts.
By Anya Shukla and Kathryn Lau Over the past few months, we have seen an uptick in crimes against Asian-Americans due to fears surrounding COVID-19: in Seattle’s International District and Chinatown, for example, Asian restaurants have been vandalized. However, Keoke Silvano, a Filipino photographer and advisor at the University of Washington, recently facilitated an art project to support these businesses. We spoke with him to learn more. Q: Could you describe your recent work in the International District? A: I was just driving by Jade Garden—that’s a restaurant in Chinatown that I see frequently—and I saw they were putting boards up. I thought they were closing the doors—that’s what you think when you see people boarding up a building—so I stopped and learned that somebody had broken out the windows. I knew that when you have boards up on a building, it’s an open invitation to taggers to just come in and do some graffiti art. I wanted the owner to have a little more control over his property. So I talked to him about painting murals on those boards; I then put a call out for artists on Facebook. And in 30 minutes, people already wanted to come and paint.
By Anya Shukla Historically, glassblowing has been dominated by European artists. Dan Friday, a member of the Lummi Nation, is working to change that dynamic. Seattle born, Friday went to the local, arts-focused Northwest School. However, according to Friday, “it didn’t really seem pragmatic as a career, to continue in artwork.” After graduating, he decided to go into the automotive industry. Two years later, at twenty, he walked into a glassblowing studio for the first time and saw a potential career path. An art form where an artist uses a blowpipe to inflate molten glass, glassblowing requires a fairly unique skill set. Glassblowers must utilize a mix of industrial and artistic knowledge. Nevertheless, Friday’s background gave him the ability to succeed in the discipline. Friday uses his childhood drawing experience and mechanical knowledge from auto work to create his pieces. But the learning curve has been steep: “Glassmaking is a lot like being a musician,” Friday noted. “Anyone can get up there and sing, but when you’re performing at such a high level, it can take two or three or five years to start to feel like you’re producing something you’re happy with.”
By Anya Shukla Leilani Lewis, a Seattle native, was first exposed to visual arts when her mom was offered a job at the Detroit Institute of Art. “I would go run around the museum, terrorizing the security guards,” she reminisces. Growing up in the ‘90s, Lewis noticed art--particularly hip-hop inspired murals and street art--all around her. But as she grew older, she began listening to lectures by visiting artists, shifting from a passive consumption of art to active participation. Simultaneously, her newfound artistic knowledge began to shape her worldview: “I learned about history; I learned about Black history in art. I learned my most critical, foundational identity and historical identity through the arts.” Lewis’s mother is white, and she didn’t have much connection to the Black side of her family, so the arts shaped her understanding of her heritage. Even though she was immersed in it from a young age, Lewis didn’t think of a potential career in the arts until her mid-twenties, when she discovered a passion for art history in college. After she graduated, she started working for Seattle’s Northwest African American Museum (NAAM) in Marketing and Communications. There, she discovered the power of giving space for visual artists. “I think the most beautiful art is truthful,” she said, “Therefore, I feel like art has a wonderful way of healing people.”
|
Archives
February 2023
Categories
All
|