BY BRITTANY DANIELLE for WEEKLY VOLCANO 1/23/26 |
Tacoma has always been a city that makes things. We come from an industrious history of grit and building our future with our hands. But we also make less tangible things, such as community, culture, and second chances.
Over the last few years, Tacoma has seemed quieter than what we might remember from the past. What an outsider might think is that we are a sleepy town, but on the inside, we see movement in person, forming relationships from neighbor to neighbor, rebuilding what was lost, and growing our roots stronger to take flight in the City of Destiny.
You can feel that creative momentum on the Eastside in a way that is hard to miss. The Eastside Community Center has become one of those places where the day is always in motion. There are kids coming through the doors with backpacks and bright energy, families gathering for programs, and neighbors using the space the way a community center is meant to be used, by sharing space for life, health, resources, and art.
There is a door inside the Eastside Community Center building that carries its own kind of charge. The sound seeping out is not just music. It is possibility. It is the steady, unmistakable rhythm of young people practicing who they are becoming and discovering a different language with which to express themselves.
That door leads to the Billy Ray Shirley III Recording Studio.
The studio exists because Tacoma chose to move forward with intention and attach that intention to a place that points toward the future. Billy Ray Shirley III was a Tacoma teenager, just 17, who was killed by gun violence in August 2011.
What followed was not only mourning, but action. Billy Ray’s mother, Shalisa Hayes, spearheaded the project along with family, friends, and a network of supporters, and built the Billy Ray Shirley III Foundation to carry his legacy in a direction that serves youth and strengthens the community.
Shalisa knew what her son stood for and continued his legacy through the foundation. As stated on the foundation’s website, “I’m trying to change the world … erasing all the pain and all the hurt.” These were words spoken by 17-year-old Billy Ray Shirley III, a teenager who spent countless hours volunteering his time to help others while hoping to make changes within his community.
Right now, the studio is set up for full-band recording, production, vocal recording, rehearsals, and session work. It currently hosts an after-school program for local youth to learn how to use the space, instruments, and production equipment. The goal, however, is much bigger.
Tim Held, a musician, producer, and sound engineer at the studio, shared, “The mission is to be a hub for young people to share their ideas, learn music, learn production, and have a place that supports them from their first musical awakening, to their first band practice, to their first show, and through the doors of the Eastside Community Center to the outside world.”
Tim continued, “People forget that all the movements, folk, grunge, punk, and many rock stars started by having a community of friends who were also in bands that traveled together, played shows together, and even played in each other’s bands. It was a traveling community. A ‘we rise together’ attitude. An abundance mindset. This is a place where people can build their music community in real life and create that abundance together.”
It is easy to underestimate what a room with microphones and monitors can do. But anyone who has spent time around teenagers knows this: young people are walking around with entire worlds inside them. Some of it is joy and ambition. Some of it is stress they do not always have language for. Music gives them language. This studio is dedicated to teaching them how to use that language.
Tim Held shared, “In the studio, you can watch it happen. A student comes in unsure or curious, and they play around with an instrument, or maybe a few instruments, but you see this moment come across their face where they just became a musician, and you know music is going to stay with them for the rest of their life.”
Tacoma is ready for this kind of abundance.
Tim Held and Stefon Payne look forward to sharing the studio with more than just the after-school program. “We would like it to grow into a place for all community members to come learn and record. There are many who record at home and do not have access to something as complete as this studio,” Tim said.
Having the community center surrounding and uplifting the studio creates a full, in-house experience for anyone who finds it as a resource. You can rehearse there, cut your first single, then use one of the smaller rooms in the center to showcase your new music or host a DIY show, all while supported by the center built in Billy Ray Shirley’s name.
In a city with as much talent as Tacoma has, that kind of room becomes more than a creative outlet. It becomes both a starting line and a landing place. Too many people begin with a deficit. The Billy Ray Shirley III Recording Studio is ready to remove that barrier.
That is the kind of abundance a city can build on. This is where the community comes in. It is the people who are already here getting in touch with what has been built and leveraging the resources the city has been quietly developing.
If you want to see Tacoma’s future and be Tacoma’s future, do not just look at new construction and what is coming. Look back and see what was, and what has grown from our past.
To learn more about the foundation and Billy Ray Shirley III, visit billyray.org.
