City of Portland Mayor's Proclamation for Vanport Day of Remembrance
May 23rd, 10:15 am
Portland City Hall, 1221 SW 4th Ave, Portland, Oregon
As part of The Vanport Mosaic Festival 2018 MAY 23-28, 6 days of memory activism opportunities in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Vanport Flood, and the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act: https://www.vanportmosaic.org/schedule
The Vanport Mosaic invites you to join our "memory activism" effort to amplify, honor and preserve the history of Vanport City.
Please join us at Portland City Council on May 23th, and make history with us! 70 years after a flood wiped out Oregon's second largest city on May 30 1942, Mayor Wheeler will proclaim
** Vanport Day of Remembrance**
Let's pack City Hall to show that this history matters, and as a community pledge #IRememberVanport
This has been such a wonderful community effort, and a perfect prelude to the The Vanport Mosaic Festival 2018, May 25-28, 2018. Full program coming soon: https://www.vanportmosaic.org/festival-2018/
As part of The Vanport Mosaic Festival 2018 May 23-28, 6 days of memory activism opportunities in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Vanport Flood, and the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act: https://www.vanportmosaic.org/schedule
Thursdays -Saturdays 6-9pm, Sundays 2-4pm
May 24th - June 10th
the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center - 5340 N Interstate Ave
FREE and open to the public
Vanport: The Surge of Social Change
This collection of historic images and artifacts unveils the multifaceted community life of Vanport, the Nation’s largest shipbuilding housing project. This exhibit documents the aftermath of the Vanport flood and it attempts to share the richness of the social and community life that changed the urban landscape of Vancouver and Portland forever. Kimberly Moreland, Co-Curator, Oregon Black Pioneers, Laura Lo Forti, Co-Curator, Vanport Mosaic and A Fourth Act
Anywhere but Here: The History of Housing Discrimination in Oregon
Consisting of photographs, text, and quotes, this exhibit chronicles Oregon’s largely unknown history of discrimination, segregation and displacement; the progress we’ve made in overcoming this history and the challenges that remain. Curated by the Fair Housing Council of Oregon
Our City, Our Voice: Excavating Portland's History through Art
Students at Portland Youthbuilders & Madison High School studied how processes of institutional racism, annexation, urban development and gentrification have contributed to today’s reality in Portland. Students expressed their learning and dreams for the future of their communities by creating silkscreen posters and zines.
VANPORT MOSAIC FESTIVAL 2018
May 23-28
Portland, OR
www.vanportmosaic.org/schedule
In these times of collective amnesia, remembering is an act of resistance.
Join us for 6 days of memory activism opportunities, commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Vanport Flood and the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act through screenings, live performances, tours, exhibits, and community engagement initiatives.
Hosted at various locations throughout North and Northeast Portland, free or low cost to the public. For more information & reservations, visit vanportmosaic.org, email info@vanportmosaic.org, or call (971) 319-0156
"Will anyone show up?" That is always the question when we host an event that deals with our appalling racial history, and with past and present community marginalization. On Saturday, May 12th, the question is particularly relevant. It is a beautiful sunny day, one of those Portlanders wait all winter for, to remind us why this city is, after all, such a great place.
The Kenton Library is particularly quiet. The St John Street Fair, with its great arts, music and food, is calling. Would any of the 986 people who pressed the Interested button on Facebook show up? What about the 92 who committed on "going"?
Slowly but surely, as it has been happening for the past 4 years, event after event, the room fills up. Race Talks director Donna Maxey, and artist Velynn Brown, both Vanport descendants, are here, ready to guide us and facilitate our journey into feeling and understanding. Henk Pander, the renowned visual artist who has been capturing the shipyards, Liberty Ships, and the Vanport Flood in his watercolors, is here too, sitting in the audience carrying his own painful memories of war, and "home" back in Holland.
Those who are meant to be here are here. And once again, we gather around the stories of those who share them as gifts: leaving the Jim Crow south just to find a more subtle but equally dangerous racism in Oregon, building a better life and a new community in Vanport, losing both in 1948 once a flood wiped all out in a few hours... the new "chapter" in redlined Albina: losing all, rebuilding stronger, losing all again; this time, not because of a poorly conceived system of dikes and irresponsible lack of evacuation plans, but because of racist city planning under the name of urban renewal.
Velynn Brown, Vanport descendant, performing her poem "Roots and Remnants" (Photo by Andrew DeVigal)
We share only a small selections of our oral histories, part of the on-going memory activism effort now in its fourth year, and then we sit quietly with our eyes closed to listen, truly listen, to Velynn Brown's words. Her poem, "Roots and Remnants," is a lullaby of memories. I cheat, and open my eyes for a moment. Tears are streaming down her face. My face. Everyone's face. She has embraced the responsibility and the honor of being the "Remnant Keeper," the one left to tell the story. We clap for long time. If my hands could speak they would say Thank you. I am sorry. Forgive us. Forgive me. What can I do? I made my home in your home. I don't want my story to bury yours. And how can we tell a different one together, one where we all belong?
Donna Maxey must understand the language of my hands, because she stands up, hugs Velynn as warmly and tight as I wish I could do right now, and answers my questions. See us, she says. See your neighbor. Let's truly see and meet each other. Ours and yours survival depends on it.
"First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew
Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out — because I was not a communist
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.
— Pastor Niemoeller, Victim of the Nazis in Germany
Race Talk Director Donna Maxey, Visual Artist Henk Pander, Artists Velynn Brown, and Story Midwife/Vanport Mosaic Co-director Laura Lo Forti (Photo by Emmalee McDonald).
A PLACE CALLED HOME; FROM VANPORT TO ALBINA will be offered again on June 24th, 3-4.30pm at North Portland Library. Join us for a FREE screening of oral history documentaries, part of the Vanport Mosaic participatory on-going oral history project, with a facilitated dialogue presented in collaboration with Donna Maxey, Founder/Director of RACE TALKS, and artist Velynn Brown, both Vanport descendants. Through archival footage, historic photographs, and compelling first-person narratives, this collection of short films and audio oral histories traces the story of Portland’s African American community from the 1940s to 1970s. It is a story of struggle, perseverance, and resilience that continues today.
This program is part of the Our Story: Portland Through an African American Lens digital collection and project-
Made possible by The National Endowment for the Humanities Fund of The Library Foundation.
The Vanport Mosaic oral-history project is facilitated by Story Midwife Laura Lo Forti, made possible by Regional Arts & Culture Council, Oregon Heritage Commission, Oregon Historical Society, The Kinsman Foundation.
Thanks to our partners: University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, Open Signal, Stream PDX.
As part of The VANPORT MOSAIC FESTIVAL 2018 - May 23-28, we invite you to participate to
Monday, May 28th, 10-6p
EXPO Center - 2060 N Marine Dr
FREE
As part of The Vanport Mosaic Festival 2018 MAY 23-28 closing day at Portland Expo Center (more info at Vanport Mosaic Festival : tours, exhibits, screening, forum)
VANPORT: A STORY LIVED. A STORY TOLD pop-up exhibit
Monday, May 28th, 10-6p
EXPO Center - 2060 N Marine Dr
FREE
A “miracle city.” A “sociological experiment.” A “municipal monstrosity.” A “nasty ghetto.”
During its short life span (1942-1948) Vanport--Oregon’s second largest city and the nation’s largest public housing project--drew national attention and conflicting opinions. For the over 40,000 people who lived there, Vanport was simply their home.
When the Columbia River flooded on May 31 of 1948, Memorial Day, the entire city was erased from the map and from much of Portland’s memory in a single day.
Mixing archival photographs and historical records with personal testimonies of former residents, this pop-up exhibit presents the multifaceted story of Vanport and its vibrant community. It is a story of migration, housing, displacement, and perseverance.
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Curated by Laura Lo Forti and Greta Smith.
Made possible by the generous support of:
The Oregon Community Foundation, Oregon Arts Commission, Portland State University and the Division of Global Diversity and Inclusion, Oregon Historical Society, The City of Portland, and Prosper Portland
Special thanks to: Oregon Historical Society, City of Portland Archives, Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, Multnomah County Archives, Portland State University Special Collections and University Archives, Kaiser Permanente Heritage Resources, James Stanley Harrison Oregon Black Pioneers, Kimberly Moreland, Thomas Robinson, Terry Baxter, Susan Barthel, Tanya Gossard, Norman Gholston, and Peter Marsh.
________________________________________________________________
VANPORT MOSAIC FESTIVAL 2018
May 23-28
Portland, OR
www.vanportmosaic.org/schedule
In these times of collective amnesia, remembering is an act of resistance.
Join us for 6 days of memory activism opportunities, commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Vanport Flood and the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act through screenings, live performances, tours, exhibits, and community engagement initiatives.
Hosted at various locations throughout North and Northeast Portland, free or low cost to the public. For more information & reservations, visit vanportmosaic.org, email info@vanportmosaic.org, or call (971) 319-0156
INVISIBLE WALLS: a public crowdsourcing effort to document Restrictive Covenants & Residential Segregation in Portland.
EXPO CENTER
5/27 AT IFCC, 5/28 AT EXPO CENTER
11-5PM
In the 20thcentury restrictive covenants prevented people of color from buying property in certain Portland neighborhoods. This racist history is hidden in tens of thousands of title deeds. We need your help unearthing them.
Meet Portland State University students to:
- Learn about this history.
- Receive guidance to discover if your title deeds have a restrictive covenant
- Digitize your title deeds with restrictive covenant, and add them to
the growing database
This project is a collaboration between The City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, the Portland Housing Bureau, Portland State University,
and the Vanport Mosaic.
Info: Greta Smith, Greta@vanportmosaic.org, 619-300-7855
Vanport residents working in garden, circa 1944: A2001-025.724 - Portland City Archives
As part of the VANPORT MOSAIC FESTIVAL 2018 May 23-28
Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the flood that destroyed Vanport, Oregon's second largest city and the largest WWII federal housing project.
Vanport Mosaic invites you to a very special tribute to the survivors and those who lost their life on that day. In recognition of the events surrounding Vanport and the flood of 1948, the Royal Rosarians will honor the Vanport Community by conducting a Rose Planting.
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VANPORT ROSE PLANTING CEREMONY
Thursday, May 24, 10:00 AM
Peninsula Park, Portland
(the ceremony will take about 30 minutes)
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Since 1912 The Royal Rosarians have been the Official Greeters and Ambassadors of Goodwill for the city of Portland. On behalf of the Mayor of Portland and the citizens of Portland they greet dignitaries coming to Portland from around the world. They also represent Portland at out of town festivals and activities sharing their slogan, “For You A Rose In Portland Grows”. We all know them by their trademark white suits and straw hats.
One of the Ceremonies they perform, is a beautiful Rose Planting Ceremony. Roses are planted in recognition of a specific person, place or event. They have planted roses at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, China, Spain, Italy, South America etc. They have planted roses literally all over the world.
We appreciate the Royal Rosarians for honoring the community with this event and thank them greatly.
For info, please contact Story Midwife Laura Lo Forti at laura@vanportmosaic.org
As part of The Vanport Mosaic Festival 2018 May 23-28, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the flood that destroyed the Vanport, Oregon's second largest city and largest federal housing project in the U.S., the Vanport Mosaic is honored to present
ARTWORKS OF HENK PANDER:
Reflections on War Memory, Liberty Ships, and the Climate Refugees of Vanport
May 23nd, 6:30pm *** Exhibition Opening, Reception and Artist Talk ***
May 24th, and 25th, 4-7pm
May 26th, and 27th, 12-3pm
Cerimon House: 5131 NE 23rd Ave, Portland OR -
FREE and open to the public
Originally from the Netherlands, Henk Pander was a child during WWII. Since immigrating to the PNW in 1965, he has become one of the regions most renowned artists. This series of large format watercolor and pen & ink studies deals with an aspect of Pander’s own war memory with a focus on the Liberty Ships--, which delivered essential supplies for survival both during and after the war--, and the people of Vanport who built them.
Co-curated by Story Midwife Laura Lo Forti and Greta Smith, made possible by the generous support of Carla Saunders, Darlyn Jablonski, Dinah Dodds, Dwell Realty, and Cerimon House. Special thanks to Sally Retecki.
Join us on MAY 28th, at EXPO CENTER, for full day of bus and walking tours, exhibits, a Forum on Disaster Preparedness, and a screening of Vanport Oral Histories! It is the closing of the VANPORT MOSAIC FESTIVAL in commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of The Flood.
We expect hundreds of people passionate about history, social justice, arts, and this beautiful region of ours. We invite you to share your projects, initiatives, programs, items to sell at the
COMMUNITY FAIR
MAY 28th, 10-4pm
Expo Center
For pricing and more info, get in touch BY MAY 14 with Sunshine Dixon at Vanportmosaicvendors@gmail.com.
As part of The VANPORT MOSAIC FESTIVAL 2018 - May 23-28, we invite you to participate to
INVISIBLE WALLS: a public crowdsourcing effort to document Restrictive Covenants & Residential Segregation in Portland
In the early to mid-20thcentury restrictive covenants (rules) prevented people of color, particularly African Americans, from buying and owning property in certain Portland neighborhoods. This racist history is hidden in tens of thousands of title deeds. We need your help unearthing them.
Become a history detective and join a collective effort to uncover Portland's history of housing segregation!
What can you do? Meet Portland State University students at the festival so you can:
- Learn about this history and the long-term effects of housing discrimination.
- Receive guidance to discover if your title deeds have a restrictive covenant
- Bring your title deeds with restrictive covenant so we can digitize them, and add them to the growing database
- Add your own discoveries, questions, and stories to help us amplify this silenced history.
For info: Greta Smith, greta@vanportmosaic.org
This mapping effort is a collaboration between The City of Portland's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, the Portland Housing Bureau, Portland State University, and the Vanport Mosaic.
We spent a week at the wonderful Oregon Episcopal School, where 3rd graders explored the history of Vanport and its legacy guided by their dedicated teacher Kiah Johnson Mousey.
We are so inspired by their reflections in response to our exhibit Vanport: A Story Lived. A Story Told!
On February 27th, as part of the Oregon Episcopal School Exploring Our Oregon History Through Art and Experience series, we screened Lost City, Living Memories: Vanport Through The Voices of Its Residents, a selection of short oral histories documentaries part of our growing collection. The room was packed with families and community members, including Vanport Flood survivors who shared their own memories. Prof. James S. Harrison helped us understand the impact of this history, and Story Midwife Laura Lo Forti talked about our on-going "memory activism" effort.
We closed this beautiful collaboration by curating a panel with former Vanport residents: an unforgettable intergenerational exchanged that touched everyone lucky enough to be part of it!
Would you like to create a meaningful educational experience and bring community voices to your school or community group? Let's dream up something together! Get in touch with Greta Smith, our educational programming director, at greta@vanportmosaic.org, or comment on this post.
On October 17th, Westminster Presbyterian Church hosted a staged reading of LEFT HOOK, a timely drama about gentrification and community displacement in 1970’s Portland, set in an Albina boxing club, written by Rich Rubin and directed by Damaris Webb.
Following this staged reading, Left Hook is slated to receive a full, three-week production at the Vanport Mosaic Festival, in May 2018.
We are thrilled to offer a new way of learning about the transformative history of Vanport! Vanport. A Story Lived. A Story Told traveling exhibit tells the story of the temporary city of Vanport and the vibrant community that called it home. Through archival material and oral history, it explores this chapter of history and its enduring impact. It is an essential and often forgotten story of migration, housing, displacement, and perseverance.
This is Vanport Mosaic first "Out Of The Box" exhibit, designed to travel to schools, churches, community groups and wherever there is an interest for this important history. Please come and see it, and drop us a line at greta@vanportmosaic.org to explore how to bring it your community!
CALENDAR:
2017
- May 26-29: Vanport Mosaic Festival 2017
- August 5th: Vanport Jazz Festival
- September 28-October 5th: Oregon Historical Society
- October 15th: Portland State University/Portland State Of Mind in conjunction with Lost City, Living Memories oral histories screenings. Info here
- November 8-10: Lewis&Clark College/14th Annual Ray Warren Symposium on Race and Ethnic Studies. Info
2018
- February 8th: Fair Housing Fair
- February 20-March 1: Oregon Episcopal School
- March 3 - 25: Oregon Children Theater
- May 25-28: Vanport Mosaic Festival 2018
Our deepest gratitude to all the former Vanport residents who have shared their memories with us for the past three years, and informed this exhibit with their riveting stories. And to all the Vanport Mosaic oral historians who helped us capture, honore, and preserve these precious voices.
Special thanks to: Oregon Historical Society, City of Portland Archives, Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, Multnomah County Archives, Portland State University Special Collections and University Archives, Kaiser Permanente Heritage Resources, Oregon Black Pioneers, Kim Moreland, James Stanley Harrison, Zita Podany, Thomas Robinson, Terry Baxter, Tanya Gossard, Norman Gholston, Jim Burke, Susan Barthel, Will Bennett, and Peter Marsh.
Made possible by the generous support of:
The Oregon Community Foundation, Oregon Arts Commission, Portland State University and the Division of Global Diversity and Inclusion, Oregon Historical Society, The City of Portland, Prosper Portland.
CURATED BY: Laura Lo Forti, Greta Smith, A Fourth Act
DESIGNED BY: Paste In Place/www.pasteinplace.com
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2018 marks the 70th Anniversary of The Vanport Flood. From now until the Vanport Mosaic Festival 2018 (May 25-28), we invite you to join our memory activism campaign to keep this important history alive.
Thanks to all of you who joined us in our advocacy effort in the past three years, Governor Kate Brown, Senator Jackie Winters, House Speaker Tina Kotek, and Portland Mayors Charles Hales and Ted Wheeler, have proclaimed a Vanport Day of Remembrance on the anniversary of the flood. It is time for a permanent memorialization of Oregon's second largest city and its multi-racial and multi-cultural community!
"Make history" with us by sharing your thoughts on WHY we should remember, and ideas on HOW we can honor and preserve this important chapter of our past for generations to come.
Here how you can participate the collective conversation:
- Leave your thoughts here in the comment section.
- Take a photo of yourself in front of our traveling exhibit Vanport: A Story Lived. A Story Told and tag it #IRememberVanport. Share on social media or sending to us at info@vanportmosaic.org. Don't forget to add your thoughts with it!
- Create something to commemorate this history in whatever art-form you like. Share on social media with #IRememberVanport, or sending to us at info@vanportmosaic.org.
- Join at any of our events and share your ideas in person and/or on the form available at the event itself.
We will collect all the contributions and share them with you all as they come, and they will be part of the celebrations during the Festival 2018.
Thanks for keep supporting this "history from the bottom up" effort!
Photo by Shawnte Sims
I boxed the NYC Golden Gloves in the early ’90’s. It was one of the most rewarding times of my life. Up at 6am to take the train to Gleason’s gym, giving my whole mind & body to the training. The support of my community, my trust in my trainer, my faith in a fair fight, stepping into the ring and facing my opponent. And no punch is as beautiful as the left hook. Precise. Powerful. Clean. Because of its proximity to your opponent it’s a hard one for them to see coming, and as with any good blow, the power comes from your back foot, spiraling up through your body, with clean alignment you deliver the blow.
Many times I have encountered the lament “there are no black people in Portland”. It would certainly seem to be the case relying on the dominant narratives from mainstream media (like the TV series Portlandia) down to public school history books. Growing up as a person of color in NE Portland, I knew this wasn’t true, we were here - but somehow we weren’t seen.
History teaches us that the greatest influx of Portland’s African American population was due to the Great Migration from the south during the War Years to work the Kaiser shipyards. After the 1948 flood, those who had established a community in Vanport now found themselves redlined into the Albina neighborhood, one of the few areas of Portland blacks were allowed to rent or buy, due to the Rose City's discriminatory housing practices. Keep Portland weird indeed.
The storyline of Left Hook condenses a history that unfolded over a dozen years or more in Portland into a few months, touching on the intermixed experiences of African-American Soldiers returned from Vietnam, the aborted Legacy Emanuel Hospital Expansion, the Black Panther Movement, and Portland’s once world famous black boxing community in Albina. The all black cast focuses on the owner of the fictional Left Hook Boxing Club, and his struggle to claim a stake in the American Dream for himself and his family. To keep faith.
Rich Rubin’s new script allows us to hear voices of this all to true recent history, offering a start of an understanding of the intentional and systemic choices that lead to the continued displacement of the African American community in Portland. In this time of engaged discussion about gentrification, affordable housing and displacement of communities, I hope we can use this as a spring board to ask where do we want to go from here, and how do we imagine our city.
Damaris Webb, Left Hook Director
Did you miss the theater forum that followed Gentrification is Weird bike ride during the Vanport Mosaic Festival last May? Join Living Stages, Ignorant/Reflections and Laquida Landford for Rising Waters: a Community Dialogue on Displacement Sat. 06/24! "Through interactive performance, conversation, and theatrical games we'll build community and explore questions of place, home, and possibility within a framework of ongoing community displacement in Portland."
Artist Sarah S.Shay shared with us this beautiful painting she created in remembrance of the Vanport flood. You can buy a print at this link.
Here Sarah's thoughtful reflections:
I have lived in Oregon for about 15 years. However, I embarrassingly did not know *anything* about Vanport until about two years ago, and then learned more when OPB aired the Vanport documentary. I couldn't believe I hadn't heard about this, and that it wasn't more publicized. I'm from rural Pennsylvania, and our little town was flooded on several occasions, the Allegany River jumping the banks and completely flooding everything not on a hill. So, I grew up looking at old photos of people and their boats, ruined stores and houses...but that town still exists.
Vanport is one of those events that's, well, not just an event. It left me wondering how many other people here--in-and-around Oregon and beyond---had no idea what "Vanport" was. It wasn't an event, it was a community and work and a home for so many people. The tragedy of the flood and everything associated with that loss and deception somehow got named "Vanport," too. I was left questioning what other tragedies were named by their "home," like Columbine. I'm hopeful that the stories of Vanport as a home come out of art and stories and photos....While the flood definitely was a defining event, I would like to remember Vanport as I remember anyone else I loved who has been injured or who has passed: they have name, a story, and a relationship to so many people, some of whom never officially knew them.
On May 30th, 2017 The Vanport Mosaic traveled to Oregon State Capitol to be part of an historical moment!
The Oregon State Senate unanimously voted on Senate Concurrent Resolution 21 to officially commemorate the anniversary of the Vanport flood and remember its survivors and the people who lost their lives. We are grateful to Senator Jackie Winters, who lived in Vanport and survived the flood, and House Speaker Tina Kotek, whose district includes the area where Vanport once was, for sponsoring this resolution.
Watch a few clips from the moving day:
On May 30th, 2017 Vanport Mosaic traveled to Oregon State Capitol to be part of an historical moment!
The Oregon State Senate voted on Senate Concurrent Resolution 21 to officially commemorate the anniversary and remember its survivors and the people who lost their lives. Thanks, Senator Jackie Winters (R – Salem), who lived in Vanport and survived the flood, and House Speaker Tina Kotek (D – North Portland), whose district includes the area where Vanport once was, for sponsoring this resolution.
The Vanport Mosaic Festival 2017 ended yesterday with a screening of Lost City, Living Memories: Vanport Through The Voices of Its Residents at the beautiful Irvington Covenant Church. Our hearts are filled with gratitude for all the gems of this mosaic: those who tell the stories; those who receive them as gifts; those who share them through theater, poetry, music, film, exhibit; those who teach them to our youth. We are grateful to our funders, sponsors, and partners who continue to support what is now more than a festival... The Vanport Mosaic has grown into a community of Memory Activists that gather around the many silenced histories of our region. Let's acknowledge the wounds and understand the legacy of the harm, celebrate resilience, and work towards a future where we can all be safe and thrive.