Honoring an era: 4 years of Hidmo on 20th & Jackson

4 years. The longest i ever lived anywhere was 6... and aside from that family house i never made it anywhere more then 3. 4 years is enough time to begin + complete high school; enough time to attain a college degree; a newborn child learns to walk, talk, develop a unique personality and is almost ready to enter their first school. The last 4 years was an era for us, one no less profound then any of these events in a person's life: 4 years of Hidmo. The 2nd longest time span I've ever called one place "home".

My understanding of home has never really been about places... as the first child in an Ethiopian family to be born in the United States, "back home" has always referred to a place I've never seen, that we always dream of going back to but it seems we'll never return to. But here, Seattle, WA? - this was never home. The United States never felt like home. Here we fight for equality and sometimes still feel like being called "American" is an insult. On top of this, the spaces we occupy here, have constantly been shifting as long as i can remember. From being forced to move every few years due to rent prices going through the roof, unemployment, and neighborhoods that if you are young still feel like a war zone... those years i spent on Beacon Hill, plus the years i spent going to school in the Central District... were just enough to build a community and get comfortable with the city i was born in being one way, and in so many ways now it's completely different. It's like: we make the neighborhood fresh, and then it gets jacked as soon as we do. There are people still holding on, of course, that still make the neighborhood feel like what it was, but it's not enough to say we're winning the battle. When talking about gentrification in Seattle... most people have come to accept it as the inevitable.

Then there's Hip Hop. The music and culture that has kept me alive, that accepted and saw me for who i am even when my own people didn't. The style... the dance that is present with my first memories of life. A traditionally Black & Brown form of expression like every form of American music that came before it, that is now being white-washed and taken away from the people that make it what it is - just like our neighborhoods, and every form of Black music that came before it.

Enter Hidmo. From the very first day Rahwa & Asmeret Habte took over this space (which also was my first failed attempt at bar tending) it was clear: Hidmo was the first place where every piece of me lived under one roof. Hidmo was hood, Hidmo was East African, Hidmo was Hip Hop, Hidmo was community organizers & activists, Hidmo was all these things and more. It was small-business owners who respected the space they occupied and the people who came before them. People who risked their business to do something positive for the community, time and time again. Despite police harassment, new neighbors who blamed crime in the surrounding neighborhood on the restaurant, the Habte sisters + the Hidmo family nurtured an entire community; several communities, in fact - that prior to Hidmo i never saw live in one place.

If you know me, inside the Hidmo you've probably heard me say the words "this place is more home to me then my house is", or heard me refer to it as "a community center cleverly disguised as an Eritrean restaurant"... and after the last 4 years, i honestly don't know who i would be without Hidmo. But also like i said before, "Home is not a place".

When i think of home now, i think of people. I think of my family, who have never been stationary for too long, yet wherever they go, that's home. I think of the true friends I've made in life, the people who have seen me for everything that i am, the people who have fought with me and still loved me unconditionally. I think about music and all the places it's brought me, and every single person that's welcomed me into their homes. And i will always think of the people that made Hidmo what it is, when i think about home. No matter where life takes us.

Hidmo is entering a new phase now... which involves closing the restaurants doors on 20th & Jackson, while working with 4Culture and Historic Seattle on plans to become an anchor tenant at Washington Hall. It's a very exciting transition, one that has the potential to leave an even deeper impact then the last 4 years at 20th & Jackson has. All the details, plus ways to keep in touch, are posted on Hidmo's website www.hidmo.org Sign up for the e-mail list!

Much love to Rahwa & Asmeret Habte, Heidi Jackson, and the entire Hidmo family (there's so many of ya'll) for supporting us all for this long... the years, the hard work, and the sacrifices you made for our community these last 4 years will never cease to amaze me. We all should be stepping it up now. Thank you for helping so many people's dreams come true. Thank you for making me believe anything is possible with love. I'm sure entire books will be written on the subject soon. Looking forward to Hidmo NEXT!

-- gabriel teodros

PS: Do check www.hidmo.org for more information... and there's lots of videos posted on this very blog - http://gabrielteodros.blogspot.com/search/label/hidmo

* Located in a neighborhood that used to be the only area where Hip Hop shows were allowed to happen, where by 2005 none were happening... and on a street with a rich history of jazz clubs dating back to the 1920's, where currently no music venues exist... it's a little-known fact that police often come to small-business owners in the CD and South End and "advise" them against doing any kind of Hip Hop music, because they think it will attract violence. (I doubt business owners in Fremont and on Capitol Hill are getting this same "advice" from the SPD) Yet despite all this... Hidmo is now known as an all-ages Hip Hop venue in the Central District, and a safe space.