BlackPast.org Blog: Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute: 40 Years of Black Performing Arts History in Seattle, Washington

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[Photo credit: Synagogue Bikur Cholim: Washington State Jewish Historical Society]

BlackPast.org Blog
Saturday, February 16, 2013


Editor's note: today's blog post is written by guest blogger Lisa Myers Bulmash
It is nice to point out heroes of color duringBlack History Month, like legendary poet/playwright/author Langston Hughes, butas readers of the Black Past blog well know, black history is somethingeveryday people create, every day. For the past four decades, the LangstonHughes Performing Arts Institute (LHPAI) has created performing arts historyvital to the Seattle African American community. 
The Institute seems to have always been part of the Central Area, and, in a way it has:its landmark building was originally erected as the Chevra Bikur Cholimcongregation's synagogue and dedicated in 1915. At that time, the Central Areawas a mostly Jewish neighborhood with some residents of black, Japanese, andScandinavian heritage.
More black people began to move to Seattle duringWorld War II, but were restricted to the Central Area by job and housingdiscrimination. It took long-term challenges from dozens of Seattle civilrights activists and thousands of demonstrators and protestors of all racialbackgrounds in the 1960s for the city and state to improve housing, educationaland recreational opportunities for blacks and other people of color.
Bythe late 1960s many of these activists sought a chance to establish a culturalcenter in the Central Area.  That chancearrived in 1968. The congregation of Bikur Cholim sold its synagogue to theCity of Seattle as many of its members migrated out of the area south to SewardPark and east to Mercer Island and other suburbs. In 1969 Seattle’s leadinganti-poverty organization, the Central Area Motivation Project (CAMP), utilizedfederal funding to help create the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center in anunusual partnership with the City of Seattle.