2020 program

What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb? What if our America is not dead, but a country that is waiting to be born?...”- civil rights lawyer and Sikh interfaith leader – Valarie Kaur

Our annual Vanport Mosaic Festival cannot happen as originally planned in in N/NE Portland venues rich with invisible and intangible history, but the Spirit of Vanport lives on through a virtual season of hope, moral imagination and solidarity.

More than ever, we need to reckon with the gap between our ideals and our reality. Let’s look back to to move forward, and together grapple with critical questions of identity, justice and survival:

Who gets to be American? What does it mean to be an American today?

What are the lessons that can inform how we respond to today's crisis as a city, as community and as individuals?

Join us for an online series of memory activism opportunities: screenings, presentations, conversations and art performances that amplify personal experience of individuals and communities impacted by the long-endured inequalities across American economic, social, and civic systems.
#HistoryIsNow
What is the new story we commit to create together?

This  multi-disciplinary event was awarded the Oregon Heritage Excellence Award, the Spirit of Portland Award by City Commissioner Nick Fish, and the Columbia Slough Watershed Council’s Achievement Award. 

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Friday, May 8

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Wednesday, May 27

Saturday, May 30

Standing Together Seeing and Being Seen

Dance/theater performance conceived by Wendy Hambidge. Collaboratively created by Jorge Samuel Faria, Wendy Hambidge, Damaris Webb.

A Rose and Grief

A poetry reading by Lakayana Drury followed by Q/A

The Secret Asian Man

Theater/documentary by Samson Syharath

Love is What Lightens

By Aaron Spriggs

More Devotedly podcast Volume III: Douglas Detrick in Conversation with

Michelle Fuji on "Constant State of Otherness" Taiko Project

See Her Strength, The Ism-Project

A monologue written and performed by Samson Syharath for the Ism-Project/MediaRites

Becoming American. A conversation/Part 1

Sankar Raman/The Immigrant Story and  Ramiza Koya, the author of “The Royal Abduls”

Who gets to be an American?

A Confluence Conversation with Patricia Whitefoot (Yakama Nation), Elizabeth Woody (Warm Springs) and Chuck Sams (Umatilla)

Standing Together: Seeing and Being Seen Panel

Moderator Angelique of Montreal, will join Samuel from Brazil and Damaris and Wendy from Portland to discuss Standing Together, their experiences, intentions and takeaways. .

(UN) Belonging

A participatory installation by Sabina Haque followed by Q&A

Is Everybody Here? - A Zoom Musical Revue

Zoom Musical Revue is a collaborative effort of more than 30 creators illustrating the current moment of COVID-19 in a 40-minute musical revue of ten songs.

Harvest, The -Ism Project

By Dmae Roberts for MediaRites' The —Ism Project.
Performed by Jane Vogel Mantiri

Growing up BLACK in Oregon

A World Stage Theatre conversation with local youth and young adults

ANICCA / Impermanence

Dance performance by Minh Tran & Company with live Q&A

Health, Hate, Housing and History

 Lessons at the Intersection of Race and Pandemics - a presentation by Allan Lazo, Executive Director, Fair Housing Council of Oregon (FHCO)

Becoming American. A conversation/Part 2

Jennifer Fang, a professor of history and the Director of Education at the Japanese American Museum of Oregon in conversation with Sankar Raman/The Immigrant Story

106 and Quarantine - NW Hip Hop History

Screening/conversation hosted by Bruce Poinsette and Donovan Smith

Moving Boundaries

An art-infused conversation with community weaver, dancer, activist Chisao Hata; Jazz composer Darrell Grant; and fine art painter Henk Pander

Virtual Explorations of Visual Sound

A performance by Myles de Bastion

Vanport Day of Remembrance

On the 72nd anniversary of the 1948 Vanport Flood join us for “Lost City, Living Memories: Vanport Through The Voice of Its Residents’”/screening; “Vanport, The Musical” /performance; “Vanport; The Miracle City”/presentation; storytelling by Ed Edmo; singing by John Edmo.

Behind Barbed Wire: The Search for Japanese Americans Incarcerated During WWII 

Photojournalist Paul Kitagaki talks with Lynn Fuchigami Parks/Japanese American Museum of Oregon ED, and Andrew DeVigal/UO-SOJC’s Agora Journalism Center Director.

WE ARE AMERICA - an exchange through words and art

Chisao Hata Donovan Smith Juan Cervantes Morales Micah Fleisher Pamela K. Santos Mosley WOtta Lakayana Drury

The Virtual Vanport Mosaic Festival is made possible by the generous support of:

FUNDERS: Regional Arts and Culture Council, Oregon Cultural Trust

And the collaboration of: Cerimon House and CymaSpace