By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium

On Sunday, Detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin and Jameel Shabazz, owner of J Styles Barbershop and founder of Project Impact, partnered with the Washington Chess Federation to host the Sunday Barbershop Chess Tournament, an event that combined the game of chess with one of the Black community’s oldest and most vital gathering spaces: the barbershop.

Outside of the Black church, barber and beauty shops are two of the most prominent cultural hubs in the Black community. Barbershops have long served not just as places for grooming but as trusted community gathering spaces. Recognizing this history, Bouldin and Shabazz brought their vision to life by fusing the intellectual challenge of chess with the barbershop’s legacy of community leadership.

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