By Nicholas Williams/UW News Lab

A Central District hair salon has become the unexpected host of monthly poetry nights in the midst of neighborhood development at 23rd and Union.

Soul Collective, located on the block with the neighborhood PCC and across the Midtown Square apartments and neighboring businesses Jerk Shack, Neighbor Lady, Raised Donuts, and the Arte Noir gallery, is a space committed to sharing its artistic expertise of diverse ethnicities, backgrounds and hair textures.

Owner Alexandria Folino says she founded the small business to desegregate hair care in an environment of unpretentious luxury.

“I decided to embark on a journey of creating a space that felt right for the type of hair on my head and others that look like me because they have all heard that their hair is a specialty in the beauty industry,” Folino said.

Folino was approached with the idea of hosting poetry nights by poets Joshua Griffin and Julie Feng.

“Alex is from the district. Julie’s from the south end. I grew up in the north end and we’ve all seen this city change,” Griffin said.

“We can speak back to what 23rd and Union used to look like. So what are you going to do now after you leave this space? Hopefully, continue to find ways to be in the community and not find ways to uproot the community.”

Folino acknowledges the Central District has changed a lot since she grew up there and says, by having events like these poetry nights, she can participate in building the new culture of the neighborhood.

The poetry nights include an open mic segment along with three to four featured readers perform to end the night.

“It’s an action-packed hour and a half,” Griffin said. “As somebody who co-hosts, I usually start by encouraging people to read to try to unthaw the Seattle freeze. Seattle is a pretty progressive place so I encourage people to talk to someone they don’t know.

Feng feels fortunate to be able to share the salon.

“Alex is amazing and her hair salon is such a beautiful space,” Feng said. “For Josh and I, being able to host at a black-owned business in the central district is pretty foundationally important to our vision.”

“Alex is all about community,” Griffin said. “What better way than to partner with her and build community in a beautiful space with vaulted ceilings, windows from floor to ceiling and plants everywhere.”

Folino says there are parallels in elements of creativity applied to poetry and hair styling.

“They’re both art forms where a community is created,” she said. “So the idea of the hair salon opening arms to events that align with the type of work that do as a service provider, and interacting with different kinds of people from different places seemed like a no-brainer.”

Soul Collective is located at 2210 E Union. The next Central District Poetry Night will be held Friday, April 26th starting at 6:30 PM.

CORRECTION: When originally published, this story incorrectly spelled Folino’s name and misidentified where the storefront is located near 23rd and Union. We apologize for the errors.

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