The Gen Z’s and Me

By Audrey Edwards

In 1951, UW students opened a café in the basement of the Art Building. At first they sold art supplies and drip coffee, and directed the revenues toward scholarships. The spot, which they named Parnassus, quickly became a fashionable hangout, a gallery and event space. It was famed for having the best coffee on campus.

Parnassus was always packed, its tables crowded with people sketching, studying or debating Descartes. In the late 1970s, when Jamie Walker, now director of the School of Art + Art History + Design, was an undergraduate, he was a regular. “It was student-run. It was popular because of its ambiance. And it was probably one of the first places in Seattle that served good dark roast coffee,” he says.

When Walker came back to the UW to teach in 1989, he was glad to find the café still running. “It had been cleaned up a bit,” he says. “It was super popular and seemed to always be very, very busy.”

But students returning to campus after winter break this year found the doors closed indefinitely. “There was no warning,” says Winnie Wine, a senior majoring in design. If they had known, “maybe there would have been a call for action,” she says. Wanting to do something, Wine researched the venue’s story. “Hearing about its history made me want to save it even more.” She also learned about rising food prices, wages and the business of running a café. A meeting with UW Housing and Food Services, which has managed Parnassus in recent years, revealed that “Basically, no cafés on campus are making a profit,” says Wine. “And often they’re subsidized by the school that they’re in.” A subsidy is more difficult for the School of Art + Art History + Design, which has a tight budget, says Walker. “We investigated every possible way to keep it open,” which included a one-year bailout, he says. But the school’s leaders couldn’t find a long-term solution for the café. Now students hope to find a future for Parnassus. The goal is to reopen the space in some form, maybe as a gallery, a lounge with a coffee vending machine or an event space. “Maybe it’s all those things,” Wine says. “We’re really just trying to get the doors open again.”

This winter and spring, nine graduate students from UW Bothell worked with the city of Lynnwood to further its efforts to become a more welcoming and cohesive community. The students, who are pursuing master’s degrees in policy studies, reviewed community surveys and held an informational meeting with a diverse group of residents and business owners before making recommendations. They suggested the city increase access to affordable housing as well as English language and technology training. They also encouraged the city to work with leaders from the African immigrant community. The project was a component of a class taught by Professor Jin-Kyu Jung. The group presented its findings to Lynnwood’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Commission in March.

I loved being the final keynote speaker wrapping up Black History Month at the University of Washington, where I graduated over 50 years ago. There were only about 100 Black students on a campus of 30,000 students back then. Now, there are about 1,300 and that includes a Black Graduate Students Association, consisting of brainy Black techies getting advanced degrees in science and technology.

I was thrilled that these children of the digital age wanted to hear why this Boomer left the states when a new political order took over, and then wrote a book about it. How wonderful to return to campus and see that the arc of Black history, despite ongoing struggles, still bends toward justice, led by the activist youth within every generation.

I also loved that Kyle, one of the leaders of BGSA, had an Afro pick sticking out of his huge Afro during the day’s event. That’s exactly how the Black men of my Boomer generation sported their ’fros on campus. I suspect Kyle knew this and was just giving a Black history salute to a preceding generation. And to that I happily say, Right On!

—Author and essayist Audrey Edwards, ’69, returned to campus in February. �hroughout her writing career, the history alum has been interested in the African American experience in contemporary American culture. Her years in journalism took her to Essence magazine, where she worked as executive editor. She also wrote and held editorial leadership roles at Family Circle, More and Black Enterprise.

�he Black Graduate Student Association celebrated Black History Month with a speaker series featuring influential alumni like Audrey Edwards, center.

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