We’re delighted to announce that our panel of judges has chosen Phillip Russel as the first writer in residence. This program’s inaugural cohort is part of a partnership between Variable West and Wa Na Wari in Seattle, WA.
During six-month residencies, writers will each produce six 600–800-word pieces about Wa Na Wari’s programming to be published on Variable West. The writers may cover an exhibition, a single object, an event, or a contextual theme.
Our judges, Jas Keimig and Leilani Lewis, had this to say about Phillip:
“We were honored to serve as jurors for Wa Na Wari’s inaugural writer-in-residence program. The applicant pool was composed of talented writers, and we were inspired by the breadth and effort each writer brought forward. Phillip Russell’s work distinguished itself through a keen analytical voice that moves beyond observation to reveal deeper cultural and historical resonances. His writing illuminates the intersections of Black identity, pop culture, and place in ways that expand how we understand both art and ourselves. We are thrilled to support his residency with Wa Na Wari.”
Phillip Russell is a Black writer, Narrative Designer, and podcast producer. His writing explores the intersections between pop culture, Blackness, and our connection to land and identity. He holds an MFA in Prose Writing from the University of Washington and an MA in Nonfiction Writing from Ohio University. A few bylines are: Debug, A Profound Waste of Time, Fanbyte, Game Developer, Unwinnable Monthly, Entropy Magazine, Into the Spine, Uproxx, Brevity Blog, Henry Art Gallery, and more.
Sited in a fifth-generation, Black-owned home, Wa Na Wari is an immersive community art project that reclaims Black cultural space and makes a statement about the importance of Black land ownership in gentrified communities. Their mission is to create space for Black ownership, possibility, and belonging through art, historic preservation, and connection. Referred to as a “container for Black joy,” Wa Na Wari incubates and amplifies Black art and belonging while providing a safe space for organizing and movement building. By renting a house from a vulnerable Black homeowner and giving that space back to the Black community, Wa Na Wari is an active model for how Black art and culture can combat gentrification and displacement.
Read more about the residency here.
About our judges:
Jas Keimig is a writer in Seattle. They previously worked on staff at The Stranger, covering visual art, film, music, and other stuff. They are a regular contributor to the South Seattle Emerald and write profiles for the Black Arts Legacies project. Their work has also appeared in i-D, the Seattle Times, Netflix’s YouTube channel, and The Ticket. With Chase Burns, they co-write Unstreamable for Scarecrow Video, a column highlighting films you can’t find on streaming services. They won a game show once and have a weird thing for stickers.
Leilani Lewis is a Seattle-based writer, cultural strategist, and art critic whose work illuminates the intersections of visual culture, liberation, and personal transformation. Her writing appears in PublicDisplay.Art, Arte Noir, and other outlets, where she explores the role of contemporary artists in shaping narratives of dissent and joy. She has profiled the work of Ai Weiwei, Barbara Earl Thomas, Tariqa Waters, Toka Valu, and others whose practices stretch across mediums and geographies. Leilani is currently working on a memoir and is a co-founder of Black Women Write Seattle.