How This New Northwest Exhibit is Celebrating 50 Years of ‘For Colored Girls’
Aug 12, 2026, 4:28 PM
425 Magazine
Seattle nonprofit gallery and self-described museum-style gift shop Arte Noir is premiering “Colored Girls for Colored Girls — Evolution of Expression” on Aug. 19.
Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the landmark Broadway play “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf,” the new exhibit is highlighting the work of 18 women artists whose 33 displayed works “move between tenderness and rupture, memory, and invention,” a press release said. The pieces are inspired by the style and emotional terrain of the original Ntozake Shang-penned choreopoem, in which seven Black women talk about their experiences with racism and sexism.
“This exhibit is reflective of the many ways in which Black women across generations remain connected to the life, work, and legacy of Ntozake Shange, and offers a rare opportunity for us to create new communities of Black creatives,” said Arte Noir’s executive director, Jazmyn Scott, in the release.
The display is being presented as part of a partnership with the Ntzoke Shange Trust, whose mission is to showcase, per the release, Black womanhood through painting, collage, light, gesture, and color.
Local artists featured in the exhibit are Seattle’s Adetola Abatan, Kendria Huff, Larissa Umulinga, and Brenetta Ward, plus Spokane’s Tracy Poindexter-Canton. Though the exhibit publicly debuts on the 19th, an opening reception is planned at Arte Noir from 3-5 p.m. on Aug. 23. Paul T. Williams, Jr., Shange’s brother and current managing trustee of the Ntozake Shange Trust, will be in attendance.
“It is a true honor to be in partnership with the Ntozake Shange Trust to join this national commemoration,” Scott continued.
Get additional details about the exhibit, which will be up through Nov. 15, here.
