Wa Na Wari!
We are excited and honored to announce Shelf Life’s new collaboration with Wa Na Wari, a project that is reclaiming space for Black art, stories, and connection in Seattle’s Central District neighborhood. Curated by artists Inye Wokoma, Elisheba Johnson, Jill Freidberg, and Rachel Kessler, Wa Na Wari is sited in a 5th-generation Black-owned home. The house has been in Inye’s family for four generations and is now a permanent site for Black art and stories, in a neighborhood that has gone from 80% Black in the 70s to 14% Black today.
Wa Na Wari means “our home” in the Kalabari language of Southern Nigeria, Inye's ethnic lineage through his father. It is a space that reimagines the home where Black people can share their stories, map their childhood, reunite with old friends, and incubate art, all while holding space in a neighborhood that has tried to push them out. Wa Na Wari is open Thursdays 5-8, Fridays 2-8, and Saturday/Sunday 11-5.
Shelf Life hosts a permanent oral history studio in the space, recording and sharing Central District stories, as we’ve done for the past three years.
