Community Conversation: Racial Equity – Recording & Feedback Form
Published: February 9, 2021
Categories: Community & Networking Events | Featured
On Thursday, February 4, 2021 we hosted a virtual community conversations – Community Conversations: Racial Equity. Writer, performance artist, and educator, Anastacia-Renee led the discussion between Washington artists, Raleigh Hawthorne, Elisheba Johnson, Emma Noyes, and Che Sehyun. Also on screen is Board Vice President Mariella Luz, Board member Nicole Stellner, and Program Managers Lydia Boss and Luther Hughes. We encourage you to watch and listen to the conversation in the video above.
If you have any feedback or you’d like to join a future conversation, please fill out our feedback form. This conversation and others, as well as feedback shared will help shape our transforming organization as we move forward in community with artists.
Anastacia-Renee is a writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, TEDx Speaker and podcaster. She is a 2020 Arc Fellow(4Culture) and Jack Straw Curator. Renee is the recipient of the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award for Washington Artist (2018), Seattle Civic Poet (2017-2019), and Poet-in-Residence at Hugo House (2015-2017).
Renee has received fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, VONA, Ragdale, Mineral School, and The New Orleans Writers Residency. Her poems and essays have been anthologized in: Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, Spirited Stone: Lessons from Kubota’s Garden, Seismic: Seattle City of Literature, and her poetry and fiction have appeared in, Spark, Foglifter, Auburn Avenue, Catapult, Alta, Torch, and many more.
https://www.anastacia-renee.com/
https://fryemuseum.org/exhibition/7398
Raleigh Hawthorne grew up in Portland, OR, and has lived in Richland, WA for 6 years. She is a dedicated member of the Tri-Cities arts community as an actor, singer, emcee, planner, and director. Raleigh is Manager-Coordinator for the Arts Center Task Force; an organization dedicated to building a performing arts center in Tri-Cities. She currently sits on the board of Mid-Columbia Mastersingers and is the Event Coordinator for the Mid-Columbia Arts Fundraiser. Raleigh is also a local activist, public speaker, and political campaign manager. She owns her own photography business, Hawthorne Lux, and can be heard weekday mornings on AJ and Raleigh in the Morning on Mix 105.3 FM Tri-Cities.
Elisheba Johnson is a curator, poet, public artist, and consultant that lives in Seattle, WA. Johnson, who has a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts, was the owner of Faire Gallery Café, a multi-use art space that held art exhibitions, music shows, poetry readings, and creative gatherings. For six years Johnson worked at the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture on capacity-building initiatives and racial equity in public art. Johnson was a member of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Network advisory council and has won four Americans for the Arts Public Art Year in Review Awards for her work. She currently co-manages Wa Na Wari, a Black art center in Seattle’s Central Area that uses the arts to build community and resist displacement.
Che Sehyun is a multi-faceted artist, entrepreneur, and culture-bearer of his family’s Corean soul food. With growing plans to reach the world via the internet and airplanes, Che loves to create stunning videos and photos, and share original songs and ancient stories. Recipient of prestigious awards, fellowships, and residencies, he currently curates for the Seattle Asian Art Museum; directs his arts and culture-based programs through his non-profit, Experience Education; and supports his family through his media and design company, Medium Medium. Che learns from and supports his Ancient Corean Culture, elders, and ancestors, and works to reflect their beauty, integrity, and relevance.
Emma Noyes (Sinixt band of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation/ Tulalip/ Puyallup/ Danish) is an artist, researcher, and educator living and working in the traditional territory of the Spokane Tribe in Spokane, WA. As a Native woman, a mixed race person, artist, and public health professional her overarching goals in life are to: 1) sustain cultural continuity in perpetuity; 2) create a widely recognizable visual universe of plateau indigeneity, identity, and story; and 3) improve Indigenous health outcomes through community-led work to promote healing and wellness. Her artwork reflects her dual training in public health and art and includes illustrations for tribal language training materials, Indian Child Welfare campaigns, Indigenous breastfeeding programs, a modern coyote story on traffic safety, letter S of Spokane’s Black Lives Matter mural, and using illustration and creative process as a methodology of analysis for a publication on teen dating violence. Emma has written and illustrated a language manual centered around the story of her family’s language revitalization efforts titled, Baby Speaks Salish, and published by Scablands Books. Emma serves on the Spokane Arts Commission.
