In Memoriam
Remembering the lost, Comforting the grieving, Encouraging collective healing: A Message to Our Community
Our Central District community has experienced a tragedy, a double shooting that resulted in the deaths of two people, and another who is in serious condition and fighting for life. The tragic events that occurred outside of the Colman School building on February 9, 2021 were deeply traumatic and terrifying for all involved and for all who have viewed them on video. We share our deepest sympathies with the families and loved ones of those who have lost their lives and to the injured.
This violence has been jarring and unsettling for the tenants of the Colman School building, the numerous families who call 2300 S. Massachusetts Street home. We share our heartfelt sympathies with them for this tragedy that occurred right at their doorstep—at their home.
The Northwest African American Museum also calls the corner of 23rd and Massachusetts home as a tenant of the Colman School building. It is from that location that we work, build, educate, inspire, exhibit, engage, and strive to shape a better community through our cultural work. Led by strong Black women and staffed by a team of dedicated, hardworking professionals, the Northwest African American Museum is a regional museum focused on anti-racist education, inclusive history, and the power of the Black arts. We care for our community. The pain around us is the pain we carry. We bear it alongside our neighbors and our community. We are our community.
In times like these, compassion is more effective, light is more radiant, and hope is more eternal. One string of commonality we all hold is that we are all in the land of the living together, breathing the same air, and thus connected to the same humanity. Everyone brings value to our shared humanity. We can all make living more hopeful for one another by sharing compassion one toward another. Hope and love, like despair and hate, are choices.
We have what it takes to nurture one another’s soul, past the pain, past the polarizing differences. In times like these, I better understand the words of that song sung in the days of old “reach out and touch somebody’s hand, make this world a better place if you can.” That song makes sense now. We are all affected by the tragedies of February 9 because we are all a part of the same humanity.
The ground upon which we all live our lives, do our work, and raise our families is hallowed ground, home originally to the Coast Salish peoples, including the Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Suquamish, and Tulalip peoples. 23rd and Massachusetts Street, where several families live including children, and where the Northwest African American Museum is housed to honor and preserve Black heritage, is hallowed ground. The two lives lost on these grounds will forever be remembered. While we strive to understand, cope, heal, and continue to fight for justice and equity until it is reality, let us unify as a community for our collective wellbeing. We must.
With care and hope,
LaNesha DeBardelaben
President & CEO, Northwest African American Museum
