Meet the New Executive Director of the YMI
Rev. Sean Hasker Palmer has a vision for the YMI.

Originally named the Young Men’s Institute, the oldest African American Cultural Center in the United States, the YMI was founded in 1895 at the corner of Eagle and S. Market Streets in downtown Asheville.
The historic building has long played a vital, central role in what was for generations known as The Block—the heart of Asheville’s former Black business district and much of its Black population.
Over the half-century since Urban Renewal (“urban removal”) began in Asheville, the Block—and much of the East End—has been ignored, dismissed, emptied, torn down, rebuilt, repurposed, and gentrified . . . but the YMI has survived. As its new Executive Director, Rev. Palmer wants to make sure that history is not just remembered, but reclaimed, celebrated, and renewed.
“The YMI has a story to tell,” he told us. “The first thing is that we have to listen in on all the ways people have interacted with YMI over the years.”
Storied History
For example, the YMI offered hospitality and a place to stay for artists, sports figures, and professionals visiting Asheville when every hotel in town refused to rent rooms to Black folks. The organization long had a vital role as a place of wellness and community health: the drugstore on the corner, doctor’s offices, screening clinics for chronic or pervasive conditions, even the basement swimming pool that was built for a community that was segregated out of the YMCA, YWCA, and public pools.
Yet, Palmer says, “A challenge in its own legacy has been that the institute doesn’t seem able to narrate itself to underscore that legacy. I want the YMI to be a place of creative genius, of education, of hospitality, of learning, of recognizing the footprint of African American people in the region.”
He notes that for generations the YMI held an important place in education, whether by housing the city’s segregated library branch for more than three decades or by offering after-school tutoring programs. The building houses an art gallery that for many years was one of the very few places African American artists could mount shows, and it has been the home of a youth jazz band, after-school piano lessons, and other musical disciplines.
The organization has also long been a business incubator as well. Not only have numerous individual entrepreneurs found their first home in the historic building. Hair salons, retail shops, nonprofits serving the community, musicians offering private lessons—all have been part of the history, as well as the present, of the YMI building. In so many ways the YMI has truly functioned as the center of The Block and of Asheville’s Black community as a whole.
The First of its Kind
The United States has a relatively small number of independent African American Cultural Centers. As Vice President of the Association for Black Culture Centers (ABCC), Palmer is well positioned to know how important the institution is.
One hub of Black History and Culture is in Syracuse, NY, which holds annual Juneteenth Festivals, the Black Artists Collective Freedom Fest, and an intercultural Collective for BIPOC populations (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). Even Syracuse University’s broad and deep archives do not identify any other Black Cultural Center older than the YMI—and none that have such a storied history.

Telling the Story
As a result, Palmer says, “The YMI has a very intentional need to shepherd its story of being the oldest in a way to bring prestige in the present. We have to improve its footprint among its peers.
“There must have been something really unique in the 1890s here, and that—whatever it was—should be studied and safeguarded. But just like the Gullah-Geechee folk, Black folks in the mountains get lost from public consciousness.”
It was Representative James Clyburn of SC who first began drawing public attention to the history and culture of the Gullah-Geechee communities. In the same way, says Rev. Palmer, “We must draw more attention to the ‘Affrilachian’ people.”
“Black Highlanders” and Affrilachians
“Who were these Black highlanders? There were hidden black communities here since the 1700s and 1800s, with families that worked in hospitality—in hotels, inns, restaurants—and in building the railroad, in the early tourist era in the late 19th century.”
Many people know—and far more don’t know—that the Biltmore House was constructed in large part by Black bricklayers, masons, and carpenters, and many of them went on to own brick-making and masonry businesses in Emma, Fletcher, and elsewhere in the area. James Vester Miller is the most renowned of these craftsmen, having cast the bricks and built buildings housing area churches, homes, and even the city’s Municipal Building, home of Asheville’s Fire and Police Departments.
One scholar, Black Mountain native Cynthia Greenlee, is already studying and giving insights into the work of these hidden Affrilachians. Others who specialize in the Black communities of the region include Frank X. Walker, founder of The Affrilachian Journal of Arts & Culture and an associate professor of English at University of Kentucky; artist and curator Marie Cochran, who started the western North Carolina-based Affrilachian Artist Project; Malinda Russell, author of The Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen; and Shanita “NitaJade” Jackson, who is the most recent Wilma Dykeman Writer-in-Residence laureate jointly sponsored by the Wilma Dykeman Legacy and The Urban News.
“Storytelling,” says Rev. Palmer, “is the act of telling folks about the rich history of Blacks in the hills. My reason for living is to tell stories about Black people. My vocation in life is to tell Black people stories about Black people.”
The Center of it All
He continues, “I want the YMI to be a premiere place of representation, a place of inquiry, for scholars, community leaders. My heart at the YMI is where folks will come to learn and celebrate, acts of community, in community. I want it to have an impact on this black community by supporting our development as a community. That’s so important, to assure that this region doesn’t become a place where Blacks USED TO BE, but a place we still ARE. Because while there’s more history here than we could ever have imagined, it has to be found and recalled and shared.
“Part of the role the YMI must play is as regional gatherer. There is no other Black cultural center in this region. It’s unique, so it has a unique role.”
Meeting the Moment—Many of Them
Rev. Palmer notes how important the renovation of the building has been, using both public and private funds. Over the years the YMI has often faced the need to meet the moment. Old-timers remember the cleanup of Triangle Park and the founding of Goombay as a way to revitalize the Block. More recently, following Hurricane Helene, says Rev. Palmer, “We were a part of meeting the moment. You could come here and get food, supplies, the things people needed, after Helene.”
In looking at that past, Palmer mentions some of the possibilities of where the YMI should head next: revitalize some of the roles it has played in the past by doing preservation work. Wellness will be part of who the YMI is, supporting physical, intellectual, emotional wellness through sports, learning, social life, music, lectures.
“This building should be alive with folks coming in and out of it and making the space interesting. More than an artifact. Is the YMI supposed to be a living room? It is a living space.”
A Third Space
“I like to think of this space as a “third space,’” he says. “By that I mean, people traditionally lived at home, and they worked at their job location, and their church was a third space. That doesn’t happen as much anymore, with people living and working from home. So if this becomes their ‘third space … imagine. There’s always something going on at the YMI.”
Who is Sean Hasker Palmer
Rev. Palmer, who grew up in Columbia, SC, began his journey to the YMI when he was still a student himself. An alumnus of Macalester College, he earned his MA in African and African American Studies from Clark Atlanta University and a Master of Divinity degree from Duke Divinity School. He has held leadership roles at Paine College and Duke University, and he most recently served as the Director of the award-winning Upperman African American Cultural Center at UNC Wilmington.
In his studies, he set himself the goal to be the director of a Black cultural center—and he asked himself what that would look like. During the subsequent two decades he has fine-tuned the answer, bringing together academia and cultural history in a variety of ways. He has taught Africana studies, the history and culture of the Gullah-Geechee communities of the SC and Georgia coastal regions, and served in academic roles centered on community engagement and teaching. With a strong personal interest in both literature and political science, he has taken Black students to Europe and Africa to expose them to their political and cultural history in both continents.
His arrival at the YMI marks his second directorship of a Black cultural center. Previously he was the assistant director of the Mary Lou Williams Center at Duke University. The great jazz musician was a professor as well as a performer, and when her death coincided with the development of the Black culture center, it was named in her honor.
After Duke, Rev. Palmer became the director of the Upperman African American Cultural Center in Wilmington. And now he is to be the new Executive Director of the YMI. What a nice Christmas present for our city! Welcome to Asheville!