Literary Projects + Publications

The Si’ahl ATLAS is a walking guide of community and cultural memory in and at the intersections of Central and Chinatown International Districts in Seattle.  Chief Si’ahl (See-ahlth) was the leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish people, and the anglicized name “Seattle” makes this the only major US city named after a Native chief.

This guide is a part of the UN-[TITLED] project and serves as a modest collection of historical and contemporary spaces that offer nurturance and bearings of home for communities in this city.  Herein you will find archival and current images captioned with street addresses and introductory information of listed locations. Our pages also offer QR codes directing you to location websites, where available; to an ongoing Oral History series of community testimonies; and to our project home site where you will find additional locations and unfolding information about the project and its geographies.  

Here we offer a starting compass of personal cartographic explorations meant to facilitate collective learning and meaningful encounters with city legacies. The neighborhoods highlighted are also represented on the UN-[TITLED] Map, designed by Margaret Knight, AIA and meant to accompany this guide.  The map offers graphic renderings of areas historically redlined by restrictive land covenants, that are now are too expensive for communities to continue to reside in due to gentrifying developments.

With the inevitabilities of change and progress in this, and many cities across the country and around the world, it is critical that we learn about where we are.  Wherever you live, and especially if you reside in these districts, it is important we honor and respect those who live in or come from these neighborhoods, that together have shaped Seattle’s histories.  Seattle is rich in intergenerational stories rooted in complex communities, cultures, ethnicities, and heritages. This is the reason why this collective effort was informed and guided by leaders and organizers of Arte Noir, Black Heritage Society, Friends of INSCAPE, Vanishing Seattle, Wa Na Wari, and the communities they serve. We intend for this guide to facilitate an encounter that implicates and invites us all to *know* and be reflexively accountable to these spatial histories, block by block.  This is how we can fulfill a potential of locating *home* within ourselves while sustaining it for each other.

Footnote:

The Si’ahl ATLAS was part of our parting gift to audience participants who attended our UN-[TITLED] series of immersive performances at INScape Arts and Wa Na Wari, March 23rd - 26th, 2023