How Wa Na Wari uses art to enliven the Central District and keep Black residents in their homes

Before pandemic closures hit, Wa Na Wari was hosting community events nearly every day, from yoga to birthday parties to food pop-ups to book readings. The Central District organization was quickly becoming a go-to neighborhood arts spot before the pandemic forced it to shift. With new programming ideas taking shape over the last two years, Wa Na Wari is starting to get booked up again, further entrenching itself as a Seattle cultural hub.

“Even though we had really amazing programming [during the pandemic], I feel like we’re just now getting back to that place of understanding what we all do when we’re a fully open space,” said co-founder Elisheba Johnson.

Jill Freidberg (fellow co-founder alongside Johnson, Inye Wokoma and Rachel Kessler) said they’d surprised themselves…