By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
The Wing Luke Museum has unveiled “Back Home 1.5: Utopia in Seattle,” a new multi-media art exhibit created in partnership with Paradice Avenue Souf, a South Seattle BIPOC arts collective known for its expressive, culture-driven work. The exhibit expands on themes introduced in the collective’s 2022 debut, “Back Home: The Journey of Remembering,” and explores the deep ancestral and cultural bonds between Black and brown communities through the lens of the maritime Silk Trade.
Composed of artists Gavin Amos-Lopez, John Harry Baluran, and Ari Glass, Paradice Avenue Souf returns with a sequel that blends historical imagination, youth mentorship, and a call to envision a shared utopia rooted in community and collaboration.
“This exhibition was a journey and definitely a learning experience. With this one, we are leading the youth to pretty much do another version of Back Home,” said Baluran. “We are just teaching the youth about our history, and it has been interesting to see them grow and the growth in us as teachers and artists.”
United by a shared love for Seattle and a commitment to empowering BIPOC communities, the artists use their work to reclaim narratives of royalty, abundance, and global cultural ties that predate colonial trade routes.
“We want to show people that we were kings and queens at one point—well, we still are,” said Baluran. “We have been royalty, we have had the abundance, and people forget that. Ari and I went to Franklin High School together, and we have been doing this art before we knew it was even art. The connection between Southeast Asians and Black folks from around the world is so special because we end up in the same communities.”
“Being from South Seattle, we have this natural connection and natural diversity here, where we all grew up,” Glass added. “We have our own distinct cultures, but we all work together. So, we are giving people this perspective and this exhibit to showcase our own personalities and journeys. My spirit comes from the inner voice that guides me to keep creating.”
In a shared vision, Glass, Amos, and Baluran emphasize that cultural exchange, commerce, and collaboration between African and Asian communities thrived long before the Silk Road and European colonization—a history they say is too often overlooked.
“A lot of the things you see in the exhibit should stimulate conversation across different cultures, and that was the intent of it,” said Amos. “I think that this is going to be fun for everyone, and the fun part about these openings is I feel like it just makes people closer together.”
To nurture emerging talent and expand the exhibit’s creative scope, the artists invited young contributors Jommel Pastores, Zion Thomas, and Cindy Yang to join the project. Artists Aaliyah and Isabella Caldejon also contributed, offering a multigenerational perspective. Their inclusion reflects a symbolic passing of the torch—one that speaks to the exhibit’s themes of legacy and collective power.
“Each artist had a unique skill set, and we were excited to see how they could leverage that as a team,” said Amos. “We hope that they were able to gain confidence as artists and develop a broader network that might facilitate their future aspirations as artists. We also hope that we are able to add depth and a new perspective to the impact their work can create.”
Glass said the exhibit also functions as a rallying cry, urging artists to reclaim history through personal storytelling and to challenge dominant narratives that too often marginalize Black, Asian, Pacific, and Indigenous voices.
“All this stuff that you can see in textbooks, and how modern society is constructed—what we’re doing is constructing our own society from our own voices,” said Glass. “We want to highlight the Black, Asian, Pacific, and Indigenous perspective, all around the world. This is a call to inspire. What we are doing is envisioning utopia, and this is a utopia that we are all collectively building when we present the exhibit. We are also giving people a chance to interact, write down, and envision what Utopia means and looks like for them. This is a chance to build the world that we all love to see.”
Baluran emphasized that collective storytelling and collaboration across cultures are essential to creating long-lasting, transformative change.
“We have people in our community [in a film] finishing each other’s sentences on what utopia is, and the way it lines up is just perfect. Everyone wants the same thing,” said Baluran. “I think if people were to communicate more with each other and have more dialogue about the future, then we can really accomplish something beautiful for the world. If we team up, we can really change a lot of things.”
