Wa Na Wari: Realizing a Dream

As I sat down to talk with Inye Wokoma about the multimedia art center Wa Na Wari, I

asked him what I thought was a simple question: how did you get the idea to start a

multimedia art center here?

The answer took an hour and a half. The story is fascinating. It begins in Arkansas

where Inye’s grandparents and his seven siblings worked as tenant farmers. But then

World War II came and his grandfather, Frank Green, served in the military in the South

Pacific . As soon as he returned he decided to “get out of the South”: he moved to

Seattle where his sister was working at Boeing as a result of desegregation to expand

the work force during the war. He got work at a naval shipyard and bought his first

house in the Central District for $7800. with owner financing. He bought a second house

in1952 for $10,000 and rented it. He bought a third house in 1960s which he moved to

and moved Inye’s great aunt into the first house. And so it went, he bought two more

houses. The houses were “distressed,” but Frank Green knew how to fix them up. He

moved his extended family into the four houses on 24 th ave. Inye’s great uncle lived

nearby with his family. Meanwhile Inye, who was born in 1969 , spent a lot of time with

his extended family and his grandfather, learning how to fix up the houses.

As time went on gentrification threatened black home ownership in the neighborhood.

Black owners were vulnerable because they were systemically underpaid and couldn’t

get loans. When he died in 2010, banks, as guardians of the Green estate, began

selling off the family homes. Luckily the bank decided to “offload” the loans in 2016 and

Inye was named guardian by his family. He spent three years restructuring his

grandmother’s finances.

By now, the houses were down to two, the one in which Inye lived, and the house next

door, what is now Wa Na Wari. Both were in terrible condition, but with the skills he

learned from his grandfather he was able to do most of the work himself.

Inye sees it as his life mission to save what his grandfather wanted, his vision of an

extended family in the spirit of a community.

At this point he was about to rent the house that would become the future Wa Na Wari

in order to produce income to sustain his grandmother.

But another path opened for him.

During those years Inye worked as a freelance film and video photographer creating

public information media for the government and social justice communities, He had

many connections in the community. He was a founding board member at Langston

Hughes Cultural Center and then its volunteer operating director He was also creating

media for other non-profits.

Then something else came together: the idea of a community art space as a result of

working on a 1% for art project and the idea of community input in public art. Elisheba

Johnson was a key inspiration for the project. She ran a café which included art

exhibitions, music shows, poetry readings and creative gatherings. Elisheba was

already deeply invested in the idea of collective creative work and as Inye said her

“vision for cultural placemaking drives our growth as a cultural institution.”

Jill Friedberg, co director of Seattle Black Spatial Histories Institute, and Rachel

Kessler, a writer, cartoonist, multi-disciplinary collaborator and educator who explores

landscape and community also helped to put together a Creative Capitol grant to create

a multimedia art space. Although they did not get it, the idea was born.

Inye and Elisheba put together enough money to cover his grandmother’s expenses

and formally rented the space under Elisheba’s non profit.

So WaNaWari came into existence on a wish and a promise with the four friends as

founding board members.

They began Go Fund Me campaigns, asked for door donations, writing grants . But Inye

emphasized that “nothing that happens here doesn’t connect to family.”

It was the model of his grandparents’ generation, a large family supporting each other

and creating community that motivates the interactions at WaNaWari. Since it its

founding in 2019 it has expanded to include free meals, a program to help black

people keep their homes, an oral black history program, an artist residence program,

and a community garden. Many of these programs are in collaboration with local groups

such as the Bloom Social Justice group, The Central Area Cultural EcoSystem, 21st

Century (CACE 21), and the Seattle Black Spatial Histories Institute.

Elisheba organizes performances of music and poetry as well as art exhibitions. She

invites local artists and established international artists in order to give visibility to artists

here. She is deeply engaged with the idea of a collective creative community.

Inye is realizing his grandfather’s dream of an interconnected community offering

mutual support. Today it is not his family, but a wide network of like-minded people that

is ever expanding.

As is stated on their website : “The name Wa Na Wari evokes a sense of purpose and

intention to remain present in a place we consider home. Wa Na Wari creates space for

Black ownership, possibility, & belonging through art, historic preservation, &

connection.”