There is a difference between remembering history and preserving it. Remembering can happen from a distance, but preservation requires something from us. It takes community. It takes love. It takes tears. It takes money. And perhaps more than anything, it takes faith—the kind of faith required to stand in front of a darkened building and believe the lights will come back on, even when you cannot yet tell people exactly when. South Dallas has been believing in the Forest Theater for years. On November 1, the lights come back on.
For those who have followed this journey, the reopening of the historic Forest Theater is about considerably more than a ribbon cutting. That became even clearer as Dallas Weekly Publisher Jessica Washington sat with Forest Forward President and CEO Elizabeth Wattley inside the Forest Forward Starbucks now housed within the restored theater—a privately owned operation that adds yet another layer of economic value to Forest Forward’s investment in the community. Joined in separate conversations with Director of Programming LaSheryl Walker and Forest Theater Interim Executive and Artistic Director Giles King, the story that emerged was not simply about restoring a building. It was about years of residents believing, leaders listening and a community refusing to let one of South Dallas’ most important cultural landmarks disappear. Money had to be raised. Land had to be acquired. Children had to be taught. Obstacles had to be overcome. And a new generation of leaders had to step forward to carry the vision into its next chapter.
For Wattley, the moment represents roughly a decade of her own work on the project. “It very much feels like a renaissance,” she told Washington as they sat inside the newly opened space. And soon, there will be a literal signal of that renaissance above South Dallas. According to Wattley, the Forest Theater tower will be activated and illuminated for the first time in more than 50 years. “It is certainly a signal that change is here,” she said.
Before There Was a Grand Opening, There Was a Dream
The Forest Theater was built in 1949 on what was then Forest Avenue, first as a whites-only venue before becoming an important cultural destination for Dallas’ Black community, eventually hosting artists including Tina Turner, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and Prince. After multiple closures and incarnations—including a period under Erykah Badu as the Black Forest Theater—the building remained largely vacant beginning in 2009.
The story could have ended there, but it didn’t. The theater was acquired in 2017, and Elizabeth Wattley began working on its revitalization while at CitySquare before establishing Forest Forward as its own nonprofit in 2020. What began as an effort to save a theater grew into a much larger vision for arts, education, economic mobility and neighborhood revitalization. Long before there was a grand opening to celebrate, Forest Forward was building community around that vision. Dallas Weekly documented residents gathering at the theater for its 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration and later watched the organization take its vision to NorthPark Center with Forest Forward: The Future Is Here. The project was informed by thousands of hours of community input, and when Forest Forward created the Forest Fund to invite residents of 75215 to invest in the vision themselves, longtime South Dallas leader Willie Mae Coleman made the first contribution, calling it “the People’s Campaign.” Years before residents could walk through newly restored doors, the community was already investing in the belief that those doors would eventually open.
But belief alone could not restore the Forest Theater. The money had to follow the faith. In 2023, Forest Forward had secured another $11.5 million toward a capital campaign with a then-$75.215 million goal—a figure intentionally connected to the 75215 ZIP code. Major philanthropic and public investments followed, helping move a vision for a performance hall, arts education hub, studio theater, café and other community spaces closer to reality. Forest Forward also acquired surrounding property as the project expanded beyond saving one building toward investing in the neighborhood around it. “Land is king,” Wattley told DW in 2024. Yet before the land, construction and millions of dollars in investment, Wattley had to convince people to believe in something they could not yet see. “I just kept saying, ‘I promise this is going to happen,’” she recalled, describing those early fundraising years as raising money on a dream. That may be one of the clearest measures of the leadership behind this moment. Long before the restored stage, illuminated tower or November 1 reopening, Wattley and her team had to ask a community and a city to see what they saw—and then accept the responsibility of proving that faith was not misplaced.
“It very much feels like a renaissance. Everyone is so excited to see the tower light up,” said Elizabeth Wattley, president and CEO of Forest Forward.
Preservation means more when the people whose history is being protected are also entrusted with leading its future. Under Elizabeth Wattley, the Forest Theater is now stewarded by a Black-led organization, giving South Dallas youth something tangible to witness: a Black woman holding the keys to a Black cultural institution and ensuring that its next chapter creates opportunity for the community around it. By 2025, Dallas Weekly reported that 78% of project contracts had gone to Black- and minority-owned businesses, including $17 million invested in Black-owned businesses through construction. But Wattley and Forest Forward have also understood that protecting a Black institution does not mean building walls around it. Preservation at this scale requires allies, investment and participation across communities and cultures. That philosophy is reflected in the intentional diversity of Forest Forward’s board and the broad coalition of residents, philanthropists, businesses and civic partners that rallied behind the vision. There is power in young people seeing that model: Black leadership does not have to surrender ownership of its history in order to invite the entire city to help preserve it.
The Forest Theater also does not stand in isolation. Just down the road, the African American Museum in Fair Park is experiencing its own significant investment in preservation, including millions dedicated to protecting and digitizing its collection and additional funding to strengthen the infrastructure needed to properly conserve its archives for future generations. The most recent Mandela exhibit had 20,000 visitors come through the door, showcasing just a fraction of the return on the investment. Together, these investments suggest something larger happening in this part of Dallas: Black history is not simply being commemorated after the fact; Black institutions are being equipped to survive. For a child growing up in South Dallas, that matters. They can see an African American museum protecting the documents, photographs, art and stories that explain where they came from, while nearby, Wattley and her team are bringing a historic Black cultural gathering place back to life. Preservation, then, becomes more than saving buildings and artifacts. It becomes an act of continuity—one generation deciding that what the previous generation built is valuable enough to protect, strengthen and ultimately place into the hands of the next.
Following a Path South Dallas Already Wrote
For Giles King, interim executive and artistic director of the Forest Theater, what happens inside the restored venue must remain connected to the community outside its doors. After years of working in Dallas arts and cultural spaces, including Urban Arts, King sees the Forest as more than a performance venue; he sees an ecosystem connecting arts, education, workforce development and community development. “I didn’t know I needed this moment,” King told Dallas Weekly, describing an opportunity to bridge generations—from artists hoping to perform on the stage and residents working inside the theater to elders who remember its earlier days.
King is equally clear that the Black and Brown community surrounding the Forest must be reflected in its workforce and programming. Fortunately, he does not have to invent the theater’s cultural identity. South Dallas already wrote it. Residents have shared memories of movies, the Green Parrot, City Lights and legendary nights connected to artists including Prince and Erykah Badu. “The history writes itself,” King said. His responsibility now is to follow that path, honoring what came before while creating new experiences for the generations coming next.
“The history writes itself and it makes my job super easy because all I have to do is just follow the path that’s been written,” said Giles King, interim executive and artistic director of the Forest Theater.
And Forest Forward did not wait for November 1 to begin preparing that next generation. LaSheryl Walker told Dallas Weekly that education became the organization’s strongest program during the theater’s rehabilitation—“what has kept us alive”—with five years of musical theater summer camps exposing young people to opportunities both onstage and behind the scenes through productions including Madagascar Junior, The Lion King and The Wiz. That work builds upon Forest Forward’s broader arts-education partnership with Dallas ISD and the MLK Jr. Arts Academy, creating opportunities for South Dallas children to experience the arts in their own neighborhood. The significance is difficult to miss: while one generation worked to preserve the Forest Theater, another was already being prepared to inherit it. The building may reopen November 1, but the work of ensuring South Dallas’ children see themselves on its stages, behind its curtains and eventually leading its institutions began years ago.
The Children Did Not Have to Wait for November 1
While November 1 marks the long-awaited grand reopening of the Forest Theater, Forest Forward’s work with the next generation did not wait for the building to be finished. As adults raised millions, negotiated property, cleared regulatory hurdles and rebuilt the historic theater, the organization was already investing in South Dallas children. LaSheryl Walker told Dallas Weekly that education became Forest Forward’s strongest program during the rehabilitation—“what has kept us alive.” For five years, musical theater summer camps have exposed young people to opportunities both onstage and behind the scenes through productions including Madagascar Junior, The Lion King and The Wiz.
“They are the legacy members of this neighborhood. And so they’re going to be so excited to come back into this building,” said LaSheryl Walker Director of Partnerships and Community Engagement
The significance is not simply that South Dallas children have access to theater; they have access to it right here in their own neighborhood. Education was never an addition to the project once construction neared completion. Dallas Weekly was reporting on Forest Forward’s arts-education partnership with Dallas ISD and the MLK Jr. Arts Academy as early as 2023. So when the Forest Theater officially reopens its doors on November 1, it will not be opening to a generation waiting to discover what belongs inside. Forest Forward has spent years preparing that generation to walk through those doors and see the theater as a place where they can learn, create, perform and eventually lead.
When the Lights Come Back On
November 1 is worthy of celebration, but perhaps the greater lesson of the Forest Theater is what it actually takes to preserve a Black institution. Preservation is not nostalgia, and it is not performative; it requires someone willing to believe when the building is still dark, raise money when the dream is still difficult to explain and build support without losing sight of the community whose history is being protected. Elizabeth Wattley did that. As a Black woman entrusted with the future of a historic Black institution, she deserves recognition in South Dallas and beyond for having the audacity to imagine something this big—and the discipline to make it real. Wattley built a coalition across communities and cultures around a vision rooted unapologetically in South Dallas but created to be shared by everyone.
The true measure of that vision will come after November 1: in the child who discovers the arts there, the artist who gets a stage, the resident who finds a job and the elder who walks through those doors and recognizes home. Years ago, when much of this existed only as a dream, Wattley kept telling people, “I promise this is going to happen.” Now it has.
The doors are opening, the tower is coming back to life and a community that kept the faith will finally walk inside. For a place that spent decades waiting for its next act, November 1 is the moment South Dallas gets to see what all that belief was building toward.
