Art installation tries to tell Central District intersection's story

Whether it's good or bad, everyone — it seems — has something to say about the intersection of 23rd Avenue and East Union Street in Seattle's Central District.

In recent years, the intersection has been the scene of drug-dealing, gangs and violence. It has also seen the gradual encroachment of new development, prompting some to decry what they see as gentrification in the traditionally blue-collar neighborhood.

Despite its often gritty reputation, the crossroads provides a central pulse of daily life for area residents.

In an effort to document the intersection's vital role in the neighborhood's past, present and future, a local radio producer and a group of artists have collaborated to set up a visual-art display and interactive Web site that are part gallery and part living museum.

It combines photographs and the spoken memories of those who have lived at or traveled through the intersection to paint a portrait of a community.

"It's a chance to talk about change that's happening in the Central District," said Jenny Asarnow, project director and producer at KUOW radio. "It's an experiment in involving a community in telling and listening to a story about what's going on in that community."

Asarnow, Inye Wokoma, a local photographer, and street artist NKO (pronounced "Neeko") collaborated to set up a display made from found materials and photographs on the southwest corner of the intersection.

The work was installed by "Scratchmaster" Joe Martinez, another local street artist, with help from David Rauschenberg and Lars Bergquist.

A phone number for a voice-mail account is posted at the display. Beginning Sunday, callers will be greeted with a short story about the corner, and can leave a message describing their own memories.

The project is funded by a grant from the Association of Independents in Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A local real-estate-development company, JC Mueller LLC, allowed Asarnow to install the art on the empty lot after the economy halted the company's development plans.

"There's a lot of empty space in what's otherwise a very busy, healthy neighborhood," Asarnow said.

The display sits next to the Casey Family Programs building, which was slated to be redeveloped as a six-story residential and commercial complex — a familiar and sometimes unwelcome sight in the community.

"Just the word 'gentrification' is very loaded," Asarnow said.

Some of the documentary's submissions already reflect that.

In one of the clips, a new resident explains his conflict between being an artist looking for an affordable place to live, and being white in a historically black neighborhood — where he's seen as part of the reason it's becoming more expensive.

The embodiment of the problems that have plagued the neighborhood is the empty retail space on the northeast corner of the intersection, across from the display. The building is the former home of the Philadelphia Cheese Steak restaurant, where owner Degene Barecha was fatally shot last year.

The building once housed another restaurant, Philly's Best, whose co-owner Troy Hackett, was shot and killed blocks away in July 2003.

The business later moved south, out of the neighborhood.

"It's a volatile corner, and it's a valuable corner, all at the same time," said Saviour Knowledge, caretaker for the Midtown Center on 23rd Avenue and co-founder of the Umoja Peace Center.

"It's important to talk about the harmful things that have happened here," Asarnow said. "It's reality — and it's something we have to grapple with together."

The voice messages will be posted to the project's Web site, then fed into a pool of clips that will be replayed for callers. The clips are uploaded to the Web site, 23rdandunion.org, where stories become part of a larger documentary being developed by Asarnow.

Some messages about the corner will be broadcast on KUOW, where Asarnow is on sabbatical as a talk-show producer. Others will be aired on Hollow Earth Radio, an online public-radio station where Asarnow volunteers.

For Jean Tinnea, a Central District Development Association board member, the documentary will do something the association and so many other organizations have been trying to do for years: Move neighbors to start talking to each other again.

"It has engaged such a variety of experiences," Tinnea said. "The whole demographic of the Central District is changing."

That change, Asarnow said, has left a disconnect between residents who remember the area as the heart of Seattle's historically African-American neighborhood and newcomers in search of opportunity, cheap rent and prime location.

In recent years, many African-American families left the neighborhood when it became unaffordable, and the Central District became a center for urban redevelopment against the backdrop of the drugs, crime and violence neighbors have been struggling against.

Tinnea has lived and worked near the intersection for 30 years. She said that despite the area's reputation, she's never felt more of a sense of community.

"It forces us to band together," she said. "I've never had better neighbors; it's extraordinary."

Tinnea is already part of the documentary. In a submission titled "How You Doing," she talks about struggles in breaking the neighborhood's racial and social barriers.

"There are gang bangers, drug dealers, pimps, hookers in the neighborhood — I don't care," Tinnea said. "I would like the drug scene to get cleaned up, but they're people, and I say, 'Hello, how you doing?' "

In her opinion, the area is still not as bad as some believe.

Knowledge agrees. "Violence sells better than good things happening," he said.

The documentary's meanings will likely be as varied as the people and stories included in it.

But for Asarnow, it's about framing a community's conversation, and sharing control over how a story with so many dimensions is told.

"We're just trying to do something real with ourselves, and be honest."

Phillip Lucas: 206-515-5632 or plucas@seattletimes.com