Skip to content

Most Influential Seattleites of 2017: Inye Wokoma

Seattle Magazine presents the Most Influential Seattleites of 2017.

By Gwendolyn Elliott October 15, 2017

inye-crop

This article originally appeared in the November 2017 issue of Seattle magazine.

Filmmaker, photographer and visual artist Inye Wokoma’s recent work is documenting one of the most compelling stories of our time: the gentrification that’s sweeping Seattle neighborhoods, changing the landscape of long-established communities and uprooting the residents who have called them home. Using family photos and heirlooms, interviews with locals, news soundbites and his own written narrative, the longtime Central District resident steadily combs through the subtext of rapid development, redlining, displacement and migration to examine the issue.

In his first solo exhibit at the Frye Art Museum last year, Wokoma debuted This Is Who We Are, a video meditation on ancestry, identity and displacement that hit home (it was excerpted at, and one of the highlights of this year’s highly-acclaimed Out of Sight arts fair; he expanded on those themes, along with nationality, in his audio visual piece, “Allegiance Reset,” at the Office of Arts and Culture’s Borderlands exhibit earlier this year). His second museum exhibit, An Elegant Utility, a multi media show which ran earlier this year at the Northwest African American Museum, further stitches together the city’s unfolding story as, he writes, “a statement about how community allows us to know who we are and imagine who we can be.”

 

Follow Us

Microsoft Awards $5M Worth Of Grants To AI innovators

Microsoft Awards $5M Worth Of Grants To AI innovators

The grants are part of the company’s 50th anniversary this year

Microsoft has given 20 organizations $50,000 each as part of its AI for Good grants program. The grants — part of an initiative to celebrate Microsoft’s 50th anniversary this year — recognize organizations for their innovations in artificial intelligence. The organizations — who applied for the grants earlier this year — receive resources to help…

Seattle Commute Survey Shows More Office Activity

Seattle Commute Survey Shows More Office Activity

Both transit travel and driving trips are on the rise

Downtown Seattle foot traffic still isn’t nearly what it was prior to the pandemic, but more people are commuting to offices on a regular basis. The 2024 Commute Seattle Survey finds that both transit travel and drive-alone trips are on the rise as remote working drops. Citywide, the percentage of people reporting that their jobs…

Seattle Pride Seeks Support As Sponsorships Dry Up

Seattle Pride Seeks Support As Sponsorships Dry Up

The nonprofit has launched a fundraising campaign to make up for a $350,000 deficit

For Patti Hearn, no amount is too small. Every little bit helps. Hearn, executive director of Seattle Pride, is working feverishly to bridge a $350,000 fundraising gap because of shifts in corporate sponsorship. Seattle Pride — a nonprofit foundation that produces the annual Seattle Pride Parade and a slew of other events, including Seattle Pride…

Tapped Out

Tapped Out

Washington lawmakers propose doubling beer and wine taxes

You might be paying significantly more for your pint next year.  House Bill 2079, introduced by Representative Lauren Davis (D–District 32), would raise the tax on beer from $4.78 to $9.56 per barrel for most breweries. The bill also proposes doubling taxes on wine from 1 cent to 2 cents per liter and increasing taxes…