#SaveSankofa: County Councilmember McDermott seeking solutions to keep theater doors open
King County Councilmember Joe McDermott visited Sankofa Theater yesterday to speak with founder Teme Wokoma (right). Also pictured is Andrea Brooks from the NAACP Seattle & King County. (Photo: Omari Salisbury)
By Omari Salisbury / @Omarisal
King County Councilmember Joe McDermott (District 8) visited Sankofa Theater yesterday for a listening session with theater founder Teme Wokoma to learn more about the financial hardships the theater is currently facing as the very real threat of their doors closing due to rising rents looms heavily.
According to Wokoma, there have been several rent hikes over the past 18 months since they opened their doors and the financial strain is becoming untenable because at the moment, although the Sankofa Theater stays busy serving our community as a place for performing artists all the way to hosting healing circles and cheer squad practices, many community groups and individuals that benefit from the theater do not have the resources to pay full rate or in some cases pay at all. So Wokoma does what so many small business owners in our community do, she continues to give from an empty cup but as her rent continues to rise and resources run low the cup is now dry so Wokoma put a call out to our community for assistance to #SaveSankofa.
One community member who heard that call was NAACP Seattle & King County 1st Vice President Nate Miles who facilitated McDermot’s visit to Sankofa Theater along with Andrea Brooks also of the NAACP so Councilmember McDermott could see the venue firsthand and learn more about the impact that it has on Seattle’s Black community and what is required to keep its doors open.
The meeting was facilitated by Nate Miles who is the 1st Vice President of the NAACP Seattle & King County
McDermott spent about an hour at the theater which is located inside in Inscape Arts Building in the Chinatown-International District which is in McDermott’s district.
Wokoma gave McDermott a tour of the theater and then they settled in the green room where Wokoma told McDermott the history of Sankofa Theater. That it was the brainchild of Wokoma her late business partner and best friend Elijah L. Lewis and was the fruition of a vision they collectively had to bring a space to uplift artists and artistry to life in Seattle, a city that has seen more and more small venues that were once accessible to artists of color close and replaced by major developments severely limiting accessibility for up and coming artists.
Wokoma became emotional at times while explaining the Sankofa Theater’s story to McDermott and the loss of Elijah L. Lewis.
McDermott listened intently to Wokoma and acknowledged the double state of crisis that she is currently experiencing with not only the threat of losing Sankofa Theater hanging over her head but also that she is still grieving from Elijah L. Lewis's senseless murder on April 1st on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Wokoma and Lewis were in the planning phase of a major fundraising campaign for Sankofa Theater just days before Lewis’s murder. Wokoma who became emotional several times during the discussion said that some days the combination of grief, disappointment, and the unknown can all be overwhelming but that she fights through the tears daily on a mission to keep the theater’s doors open not only for the community but to honor Elijah’s memory.
Happier Days: Elijah L. Lewis hosting an event at Sankofa Theater on January 28, 2023. He was murdered on April 1, 2023 on Capitol Hill. (Photo: Jordan Somers)
Once McDermott and Wokoma’s discussion ended I asked the Councilmember a few questions. First and foremost, what brought him down to the Sankofa Theater?
“You know, I'd heard about the work the theater was doing around community building that’s really centered here, and was invited to come learn firsthand about the work being done here.”
McDermott said that although Seattle and King County does well in supporting larger venues and cultural spaces that there is work to do when it comes to supporting smaller venues like Sankofa Theater across King County many of whom are also distressed.
“Sankofa Theater is doing amazing work in incubating and bringing the community together. Seattle does well in some large and even medium-sized arts institutions. We need to make sure that we have the small, scrappy places to build the pipeline so that we continue to have the full spectrum of arts and culture and our community. Sankofa is doing that exactly right here.”
King County Councilmember McDermott says that ensuring that small scrappy cultural spaces like Sankofa Theater stay open in important for the overall culture and preservation of our city and county.
When asked what tools or organizations does King County Government have to help distressed cultural spaces like Sankofa Theater, McDermott, who is the Chair of the Budget and Fiscal Management Committee, said that 4Culture which is the arts and culture agency for King County might be able to offer Sankofa Theater some support as preservation of arts and cultural spaces in King County is something they specialize in. McDermott outlined an action plan to reach out to not only 4Culture but also the newly formed Office of Creative Economy to make them aware of the struggle that Sankofa Theater is facing and see what assistance they might be able to provide.
”Sankofa and the community here are the kinds of things that 4Culture, a sister agency of the county, is built to support. I look forward to making sure that those connections exist and can be nurtured. And we've also, in the budget last fall, created for the first time an Office of Creative Economy here in the county and have an excellent person staffing and directing that work. I know many of you are already familiar with the soundstage, the filming soundstage on Harbor Island. It's that kind of work where we're trying to build the pipeline and infrastructure to have more arts and culture, in that case filming, supported here. And so the Office of the Creative Economy is within the county and we'll be reaching out about ways to find support.”
McDermott went on to say that while government has a role to play that everyday citizens can get involved in the efforts to #SaveSankofa by making a donation or even contacting their elected representatives.
“You know, whether it's their direct support to the theater, or expressing their support to their county and city leaders to make sure we're finding the resources to support this, this work is in this community.”
McDermott said that part of his action plan is to reach out to 4Culture and the Office of Creative Economy to see how they can be of assistance.
As the meeting ended, for a few brief moments there was a look on Wokoma’s face that many of us from the Central District had not seen in a long time. A slight smile, a glimmer of hope in her eyes, and an upbeat sound in her voice. For sure Councilmember McDermott does not hold a magic wand to fix Sankofa Theater’s problems but the fact that an elected official from her district came to listen, learn, and propose possible solutions means that the call she put out to our community to #SaveSankofa has echoed well beyond the confines of the Central District and is now being heard downtown and perhaps one day soon that empty cup may start to refill again.
To learn more about how you can #SaveSankofa visit: https://www.sankofatheatersea.com/
