- [Guest 1] It's about social justice issues, it's about conversations, it's about bringing the community together, and bridging those conversations.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Highlighting local black artists.

(gentle music) - [Douglas] He said, "Brother King," he says, "where you been?"

And man said, "I was at the biggest hotel in the New York State there.

The Yimca Hotel".

He said, "man, that ain't the Yimca.

That's the YMCA".

(audience laughing) (gentle music) - [Narrator] When Douglas Barnett started Black Arts/West in Seattle in 1968, his family thought he was crazy to leave his steady post office job for performing arts.

But he did so out of his love for theater and love for his community.

- [Eric Barnett] Between 1963 and 1965, I started three theaters, Ebony Stage Productions, The Black House, and The New Group theater.

Only The New Group Theater survived and it eventually became Black Arts/West.

It was the early 60s in Black America, so long oppressed and denied, was rising up in a boiling caldron of fury, giving impetus to social change, and a rebirth in minority theater development across the country.

An anti-poverty agency, The Central Area Motivation Program, known as CAMP, was looking for a director of its performing arts program.

- He just had theater in his blood.

I remember being young, going over his house, and he would dance down in the basement.

One of his famous songs was "Shimmy Shimmy Cocoa-Pop".

(laughing) - Doug Barnett was the person who really made that theater work.

I thought it was great knowing him and great working in the theater with him.

- I remember they used to come to the house and recite Paul Laurence Dunbar poems.

And he'd always listen to a lot of plays.

- [Eric] Most of the scripts we had access to were dated.

So we'd pluck from the local and national headlines and actors would improvise off of them.

After our premier production in May, 1969 through August 1973, we produced some 32 plays.

Each was a small step forward in achieving our goal of becoming a year-round professional training and producing institution.

- [Karen] He brought upon awareness to the Black community.

There was a street naming of the Doug Barnett Street on 34th and Union.

I was just proud that he started the theater in the Seattle area and a lot of people benefited from it.

(upbeat music) - [Eric] Historically the record shows that theater, in the Western sense, has always occupied a small niche in black culture.

The playwrights are out there, they just need a venue.

- [Narrator] Mention Sharon Nyree Williams in the Seattle Arts community, and you'll likely be met with a smile and an, "I love her."

Sharon's philosophy regarding arts administration is grounded in her innate ability to welcome people in.

Her passion for storytelling also fuels her work as a theater artist.

- We have to precreate these opportunities as artists and as community members to bring us together.

We need to know that there's somewhere that we can come, and be, and look around and see our beauty.

The Central District was a redlined district and traditionally, this is where all the black people lived.

But now with gentrification and people moving outside of the city, we're scattered about.

I did an internship at the Seattle Repertory Theater and it was a August Wilson play, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," and it was the first time that I was there that the cast was black, the director was black, designers was black and the building was full of all these black people, right?

- [Narrator] Founded in 1999 by Stephanie Ellis Smith, CD Forum produces black-led theater and performing arts events.

- [Sharon] I started working at the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas in 2013.

We present produce, help develop black artists.

And it's not about just putting work on the stage but it's also about helping them through the process and really developing their body and their practice as artists as well.

(gentle music) I just think about, how do I get things done and how do I motivate people to follow their dreams?

Because I'm following mine and working in the arts and telling stories.

When you see me, you not only see my family, my ancestors, you see all the people that have given me a word and picked up the phone and called, or just came to the spaces that I was in, that helped push me.

I just try to be good at what I am and try to get better and better and improve all the things.

So I think people just respect my game and that helps inspire them.

(gentle water splashing) (deep breaths)