(Image: Wa Na Wari)
Central District arts and community space Wa Na Wari says it now has a long-term lease for its 21st 24th Ave home after forging an agreement with the conservancy dedicated to Black ownership that now holds the property.
Wa Na Nari announced the new lease as it said the Frank and Goldyne Green Land Conservancy was able to purchase the 1909-built house for $1.2 million late last year.
“With the help of individual donors, the City of Seattle, Gates Foundation, and Satterberg Foundation, Wa Na Wari has secured its home,” the organization said in its announcement. “The Wa Na Wari house was purchased by the newly formed Frank and Goldyne Green Land Conservancy to ensure that the land will always remain in Black ownership.”
CHS reported here last year as Wa Na Wari said it was planning a bid for the house where its center is located as the property hit the open market complete with real estate listing glamour shots showing the HOOD CLOSED TO GENTRIFIERS” sign in the front yard.
The formation of the conservancy enabled the $1.2 million purchase of the longtime home of co-founder Inye Wokoma’s grandparents, Frank and Goldyne Green and places the ownership in a structure now dedicated to “stewarding cultural land.”
Wa Na Wari’s announcement celebrates the deal and the agreement on the new lease for the arts and community center.
“This is so personal to me. It is the fulfillment of a 20 year old commitment I made to my grandparents when, in 2004, I promised them I would do everything in my power to continue what they started,” Wokoma said in the announcement. “This was one of the homes that they made available for our family to live in. Now it is a permanent home for our community.”
CHS reported here in 2019 as Wa Na Wari took shape as a home for Black art, music, storytelling, and community events in the Central District. Wa Na Wari means “our home” in the Kalabari language of Southern Nigeria, where Wokoma’s father’s family is from.
Wa Na Wari had been raising funds to purchase the house before broadening the effort with the creation of the conservancy.
The organization says Wa Na Wari will remain the sole tenant in the 911 24th Ave house, and is planning renovations including “making the house accessible and building a new facility that will house a fully functional artist live-work studio for our residency program and an indoor performance space.”
Wa Na Wari says it also hopes the deal will resonate beyond Seattle.
“We now know that arts and culture is a strong strategy to help save Black homes in historically Black communities,” Wa Na Wari says. In 2020, they launched an organizing initiative, Central Area Eco-System for the 21st Century that “amplifies the voices and needs of Black homeowners, builds collective power for creative solutions to displacement, and organizes for more just land use policies.”
“We believe this is a model that can be replicated in other cities,” the group said.
You can learn more at wanawari.org.
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“the $1.2 million purchase of the longtime home of co-founder Inye Wokoma’s grandparents”
Did her grandparents own the home? If so, it sounds like taxpayers and private grants bought something her family already owned. Is this correct?
Reads to me that it was purchased to serve as a community space, not a home.
I think you meant 24th Avenue in your first sentence, says it now has a long-term lease for its 21st Ave home after forging an agreement with the conservancy
The house was sold to pay for the grandmother’s care. This is no different than what millions of families (including mine) across America have done. Why were public funds given so they could buy it back?
As someone else mentioned the purposed use of the property is for community art and activity space, not as a home, I believe the conservancy is a dedicated non profit that owns the property, and Wa Na Wari is leasing the space to provide programing there. I am thinking that the conservancy had to purchase the property to establish the non profit.